It's Inevitable
by Cuticlecare
Summary: A Valentine Day's gift to all the JECA squad; especially to the exceptional AnoMolly who had shared this tumblr link, full of meet uglies. Can our OTP finally be together despite all the mishaps since the moment they met? Well, it's inevitable.
1. Chapter 1

**HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all my JECA squad. You guys are amazing and deserve nice things.**

 **AN** : _So, the exceptional AnoMolly had shared this tumblr post about "meet uglies" a long time ago and I finally did something about it. Molly my love, thank you so much for being you._

* * *

 _ **Prompt 1 : You laughed in a restaurant but you have an ugly laugh and I thought you were choking.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1 : The Meet Ugly**

Beca loved her friends.

She really did.

They had met in freshmen year at Barden University and through some odd hapstance, they all had ended up in the same organised nerd singing group. Somehow being underdogs in the cut throat world of collegiate acapella and suffering together under an iron-fisted leader with stress vomitting tendencies was a bonding thing and Beca found herself staying fast friends with this odd group of girls through college and well into her mid twenties.

The girls know her inside out. She forgave them for the many, many things they did and she knows her friends meant well. But right now, she is seriously thinking she has to draw a line somewhere.

Why the hell are they so interested in her love life? Why?

It was not as if she didn't date.

She did. Many times.

Why do they always have to make a big deal of every date she goes on to?

"Ok, start from the beginning," Chloe chirped as soon as they settled in their seats and had their drinks in front of them.

They are having their girls' night out. Earlier this week, Aubrey had insisted they didn't go to classy places enough and had booked a table in a rather swanky restaurant. They had been instructed to dress up nice. They all had been told to do their hair and have perfect makeup and despite the many years Aubrey had relinquished her captaincy, she still managed to scare the Bellas into obedience.

"No. Change this subject," Beca scowled, snapping a breadstick into two and munching on one.

"I want deets!" Stacie spoke up, placing her drink on the table. "He was pretty hot, Beca. Don't tell me your hunter didn't sit up and beg."

Beca made a face and shook her head quickly. "No."

"Come on, Beca. He's a personal trainer and models on the side," Stacie cried out, waving her breadstick like a baton. "What's not to like?"

"All muscles, no brain," Beca replied before taking a gulp of her red wine.

"Amoebas don't have brains," Fat Amy spoke up. The blonde leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "It turns out you don't need one."

"Sorry. I want someone who at least can keep up a conversation with me, without getting distracted by his reflection," Beca answered. "Aubrey, back me up here."

Aubrey was primly sipping her Evian through a straw. She was abstaining from alcohol being heavily pregnant now with her second baby now.

"I agree," Aubrey replied. "But what about that scientist you went out with two months ago? He's brainy right? Didn't you met him the park? He was doing some sort of experiment and purposely flew a kite into you. That was a...what does Chloe call them?...meet cute?"

"Don't remind me. He was so boring," Beca whispered, shutting her eyes at the memory of that particular date. "All that talk about quantum physics and string theory; I thought I slipped into a coma. And what the hell is a meet cute?"

"It's when two people meet in totes adorbs way," Chloe chimed in. "Like when you met that vet when you rescued that stray cat. He was nice. What happened to him?"

"Freaked out when I told him I don't like puppies."

"That video editor you met when you got lost?"

"Insisted on poking plot holes whenever we went to the movies," Beca deadpanned. "Totally ruined it for me." She was about to munch on another breadstick when she realised all her friends were exchanging knowing looks amongst themselves. "What?" What's that look for?"

"Nothing, Beca. You've been through six guys in six months. We are all just thinking maybe it's not the guys?" Aubrey spoke up. She leaned forward as much as her pregnant belly allowed and patted Beca"s hand. "Beca, Is there something you want to tell us?"

It took Beca all of three seconds to figure out what her friends were driving at.

"Dudes, no. I'm not gay."

"You're amongst friends, Beca," Fat Amy joined in a grave voice. "Lesbi-honest."

"Nu uh! No," Beca declared emphatically. "Not when Chloe barged in naked into the shower in freshman year; which, by the way, is still totally creepy, Chloe! Not when I went all stupid hands in front of that amazon German woman, whatever her name was, back at the Worlds. And certainly not now. I'm all about the dicks."

"Explain why you broke up with Luke then," Chloe demanded. "He was perfect!"

"Yeah. Excellent bone structure. Awesome tattoos. Pant wetting hot accent," Stacie agreed. "I totally play with his spotted dick."

The girls were all snickering and Beca rubbed her temples.

"Spotted dick is some sort of sponge dessert, Stacie," she groaned wearily. "But thank you for making me think of a diseased cock."

"I agree with the girls on this one," Aubrey spoke up. "Luke's a nice guy. Why did you break up with him?"

Beca was glaring at all of them now.

Not that it helped. They just stared back at her.

"You think he's perfect? He's not." Beca said.

"Bullshit!" Stacie called out cheerfully.

"He has the ugliest laugh." Beca replied. "Honestly. Ugliest sound you can ever imagine."

"Can't be that bad!" Stacie said. "How bad can it be?'

"Trust me," Beca replied. She scrunched up her face, thinking of how best to describe that awful sound. "It's like...a cross between a cat choking on a hairball and a dull saw."

"What? Like this?" Amy said. She proceed to bark out a series of yelps. "Dude, that sounds like dingoes making babies."

Beca shook her head. "No. Worse."

"You mean like this?" Chloe tried; except hers came out in teeny, high-pitched squeals.

"No. Lower. A lot lower." Beca said, trying not to laugh. "And more guttural."

"Let me try," Stacie piped up.

By now, the girls already had tears in their eyes from stifling their laughs. It got worse as they tried to outdo each other. Chloe was leaning into Aubrey who was clutching her belly while Stacie was trying to breathe in between her laughs. Amy was wheezing almost painfully.

"You guys are nowhere near," Beca laughed. She tossed a pretzel in the mouth, crunched and swallowed before saying., "It's more like this."

She took a deep breath and then started braying the most god awful sound ever. It was ugly enough to stun the other girls into silence. And then several things happened at once.

"Oh my god! She's choking! Someone help! She's choking!"

Beca didn't register the yell coming from their nearest table. She was in the midst of demonstrating Luke's ugly laugh and enjoying the speechless, horrified looks on the girls' faces. Suddenly someone was rushing at her and the next thing she knew she was caught in this massive, most uncomfortable bear hug from the back. She was lifted off her feet and her assailant had his arms wrapped round her middle, his huge, hands in a fist. Beca was about to yell out loud when she felt those hands thrusting hard into her middle and that yell came out as an agonised choke.

Whoever was attacking her was trying to squeeze her to death.

Repeatedly.

Beca vaguely witnessed the commotion going around her. It was hard to concentrate when you were being killed. Her attacker was forcing air to come out of her midsection and it was freaking painful. All she could do was make these noisy, hoarse sounds. The girls were on their feet. Chloe looked terrified. Strangely Stacie looked calm, even strangely amused while Fat Amy was filming the scene? What was Amy doing filming this whole thing on her phone? Aubrey was the only one, trying to get to Beca, yelling "What are you doing to her? What are you doing to my friend?! "

Her way was barred by someone who was trying his best to calm the mad, pregnant lady down. "Ma'am," the guy with the curly hair was saying, his voice breaking a little with nerves. "Please stand clear. My colleague is a trained and qualified EMT. He knows what he's doing."

"It's not clearing!" Beca heard her assailant speaking up. "Benji, the airway's not clearing."

She felt more thrusts into her midsection and Beca was painfully aware how she was basically flushed against this hard body behind her. She was limp like a rag doll with the arms pinioned to her sides and those horrible choking sounds she was making was more like agonised grunts.

"Damn! We may have to do a tracheotomy. Benji, get me a sharp knife."

Wait. What? Tracheotomy? Sharp knife?

With all her dying moth strength, Beca kicked against her attacker's shins, took a deep, deep breath and yelled out.

"Get the fuck off me!"

She was mad now. And as if by magic, the hold around her loosened and she was lowered down to the ground. Beca nearly fell over but she braced herself in time against the table in front of her. She also felt a pair of hands holding her steady.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Beca shouted, swatting those hands away. "Get away from me!" She whirled around, spitting mad and found a tall, dark haired man standing behind her. He had the most surprised look on his face.

"Ma'am, are you ok?" he gabbled out.

"I was! Until you attacked me!"

By now, Aubrey had broke free and both her and Chloe were by her side. Stacie and Fat Amy were there too. The girls were crowding round her, pushing that baffled man aside. Stacie was checking her over and Fat Amy was mainly taking a close up of Beca's face with her phone.

"You ok, Bec?" Stacie asked.

Beca couldn't quite understand that grin on Stacie's face.

"I'm fine," Beca hissed out. She gingerly touched her sore sides. She was so going to bruise right there. Beca turned to find that pervert who attacked her. "He only tried to break me into two!" She was pointing at the poor man who was genuinely looked like he was quaking in his shoes.

The restaurant manager appeared beside the group of girls, her face filled with concern. "Ma'am, are you ok?"

For the first time, Beca realised the shambles the place was in. The table was askew, her chair overturned, cutlery and broken plates on the floor. There was a ring of onlookers surrounding them and Beca was painfully aware what an unattractive mess she was in.

"Umm..yes. I'm fine." Beca mumbled , trying to make sense of what had happened.

"Are you sure?" the manager questioned. "You were in trouble and that gentleman over there was trying to help you. Do you want a paramedic?"

Beca stammered out, "Errr...no..I just need to sit down."

Almost as quickly, the staff cleared the mess and the girls were led to a different, more private table. People went back to their tables and service resumed to normal. Beca found herself sitting down, with a hot cup of tea in front of her with lots of sugar. The girls were eyeing her closely; not quite sure what to say. Chloe fussed over her and Aubrey was patting Beca's hand absentmindedly, all the while muttering sadly, "This is why we don't go to nice places." Stacie and Amy were just trying to keep a straight face.

Beca was taking a sip of her hot tea when that man, Benji, materialised next to her. He patiently waited until Beca raised her eyes before haltingly saying, "Sorry to bother you, ma'am. Just wondering whether you feel any better?"

Seriously? He asked her that? How many times had she said she was fine? She was would so stab the next person who ask her whether she was ok.

"Ma'am?" Benji repeated hopefully.

Beca just nodded mutely, scowling a little.

"Umm...I also want to apologise -" he continued, nervously shifting on his feet. " - for my friend over there." He vaguely waved towards his left. Beca's eyes landed on the dark-haired man who was sitting down a few tables away, looking a little pale and distressed.

"He thought you were choking -" Benji said. "- and..umm..we're firefighters... We heard someone shouting for help. It sounded like you were choking so he did the Heimlich manoeuvre on you.. And -"

"Hang on. Hold up," Fat Amy piped up, putting up her hand. "You both thought our friend Beca here was choking?"

"Ermm... Yes, she was making those terrible noises?"

All it took was one look. One look amongst themselves and the girls fell about laughing so hard that Aubrey was snorting like a pig and Fat Amy was gasping for breath. And all the while, Beca Mitchell was cussing non-stop, singeing the air blue with her curses.

* * *

"What did she say?"

Jesse didn't even wait for Benji to sit down before asking the question. Benji had taken it on himself to go over to apologise since he, Jesse Swanson, had made a monumental fool of himself and had completely froze with confusion. He had watched with trepidation as his best friend walked over. He couldn't hear the conversation and now, Jesse was further confused when the group of girls fell about laughing.

Except for her.

Everyone was laughing except for that tiny girl whom he had manhandled just now. She was sitting there with a scowl on her face as her friends were hooting with laughter around here. She had the most put out expression on her face which Jesse was sure had something to do with him. Despite her tiny size, that lady looked fierce and Jesse was sure she could easily chewed him and Benji out, if she wanted to.

"Did she say anything?" Jesse repeated plaintively as Benji took his seat.

Benji just shook his head.

"Just a lot of swear words, bro. There's a lot of anger there."

Hearing Benji's words, Jesse groaned out and clutched his head.

"I've messed it up, haven't I?" he said.

"Big time, bro" Benji agreed. "Worse I've ever seen you do."

* * *

"You should really accept his apology." Stacie spoke up.

"No."

"Come on, Beca. He hadn't stop glancing your way for the past half an hour.."

"No way. He's a pervert. And dangerous," Beca declared. "He nearly slit my throat so a knife. He should be arrested. Or institionalised. Or both."

"He's only trying to save your life," Chloe reasoned. "You heard his friend, who is a total cutie by the way. He's a fireman. They are both firemen."

"Mmm," Stacie hummed, stealing another glance at the two men. "Your hero's kinda good looking. I wouldn't mind sliding down his pole."

"Please don't say that," Beca groaned.

"- or he can use his hose on me -"

"Noooooooo."

"He can rescue my pussy up a tree anytime."

"Stacie!" Beca hissed, colouring a little. "Stop that! And stop looking at him. It might give them ideas!"

"I'm going to go over and say hi."

"Stacie," Beca whisper yelled. "No!"

But the tall brunette was already on her feet and was sauntering over, her sexy hips swinging. Beca resolutely kept her eyes on her food but the other girls were giving a running commentary of what was happening. "Oh, they are talking now." "Stacie's leaning over! She's showing off her boobs." "Beca, you've got to see this! Your hero actually averted his eyes and offered her a seat. Like a gent!" "He has a nice smile.""He's looking your way again, Bec. He looks really scared." "Shh! Stacie's coming back."

True enough in the next minute Stacie was back in her chair, calmly eating her chicken pasta. Beca didn't quite know why but she was actually on the edge of her seat.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well what?" Stacie nonchalantly replied.

"What happened? What did he...umm..they say?"

Stacie's mouth lifted into a smirk. "Wouldn't you like to know. Why the sudden interest now, Beca?"

Beca felt her face getting hot; especially when the others were staring knowingly at her.

"I asked them to join us for drinks after this." Stacie replied.

"What?" Beca nearly yelled out.

"Yes," Stacie replied. She pointed her fork at Beca. "You should buy him a drink at the very least. He tried to save your life."

Her smirk widened into a grin Beca knew too well. It meant trouble. Big trouble.

"I also gave him your number."

* * *

This was aca-awkward.

Beca nursed her drink, trying not to engage with what was going on at the moment. They had finished dinner and went to a nearby club. Aubrey had cheerily waved them goodbye, saying "l'm out, ladies! Chloe, you're in charge. Make sure Stacie keep it in her pants. Fat Amy, don't flash anyone and somebody keep Beca from choking."

Ha ha. Very funny.

Those two dickheads had came soon after and Stacie had made the round of introductions. Jesse. His name was Jesse. What kind of girl's name is that? Beca had grunted in annoyance when she was introduced and straightaway ordered a drink. She was not going to interact with these people.

Somehow the girls had taken a shine to these two and they were having a good time, drinking and talking. They were all now on the dance floor, boogieing away. Benji was doing some sort of weird wiggle. Chloe was jumping about, her red curls bouncing wildly. Stacie and Amy were doing some sort of shimmy. Wait? There was only Benji? Where's -

Ugh. No. He was standing next to her. Beca turned to look at him to find the guy grinning warmly down at her. How long had he's been there?

"You don't talk that much, huh?" he spoke up.

"Not to serial killers I don't," Beca muttered darkly.

"I'm harmless, really. I promise," he persisted. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"I still have this one." Beca said, gesturing at the nearly finished drink in front of her.

"Okay," he replied slowly at her latest snub. The guy gazed down into his drink, and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. That look suit him- Beca thought - That slightly nervous look. He looked like a puppy caught doing something naughty. All cute eyes and adorable mouth.

Wait. What?

"I'm really sorry for what happened back there," he apologised. "I heard all that choking noises. I really thought you were in trouble and my training just kicked in."

"Choking noises?" Beca spoke up, sounding quite angry. "I was not making choking noises! I was laughing! Can't you tell the difference?"

He looked like a deer, stunned with oncoming headlights.

"What?" Jesse said, trying to make sense of what Beca was saying. "You were... You were laughing?"

"Yes." Beca confirmed crossly. "Yes, I was."

"Oh. My. God," Jesse stuttered out. "You were laughing? And I actually thought you were choking?"

Beca shrugged. She could actually see the look of horror sliding across his face.

He could not apologised enough. "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry!" Then a look of utter shame and despair crossed his face. "Oh my god, I cannot believe what an idiot I've been!"

He looked so dejected and crestfallen that for some strange reason, Beca took pity on him.

"Hey, it's ok. No harm done," she said. "Except maybe I'm going to wake up with bruises down my sides. You gripped me really hard."

"Bruises?" Jesse questioned, looking more horrified than ever. "You're going to have bruises? Oh god. Just kill me now."

"Dude, calm down." Beca spoke up.

"No, I'm a first rate idiot," Jesse continue to berate himself. "I swear I'm a trained fireman. I should know what I'm doing. You were just sitting at that table, looking all hot and pretty, talking to your friends. I was just about to pluck up the courage to say hello and then, this whole thing happened. I actually heimliched the hell out of you, thinking you're in danger -"

"Dude -"

"- made a complete ass of myself. Benji said it totally looked like I was humping you from behind-"

"Dude, buy me a drink."

"- now you've got bruises. Maybe I broke a rib? You're so cute and tiny and...What?"

"Buy me a drink," Beca said seriously, grabbing the side of his face so he would stop gabbling and look at her. "JD and Coke. And don't call me cute. Like ever."

Jesse gulped a breath or two before nodding his head.

"Ok. Let me get you a drink," he said, looking a little frazzled. "And I think I need to get another. I don't think I can look you straight in the eye without being a little drunk."

She laughed.

Beca laughed.

And she laughed a little louder when Jesse had that stunned look on his face. He was gaping at her but that stunned look melted into relief and then his mouth quirked up into a smile.

"That's a pretty laugh," Jesse commented. "Do you...like, have different laughs for different occasions? Because just now, the one at the restaurant? That was a pretty ugly laugh."

"Thank you!" Beca replied, her eyes sparkling. She felt vindicated somehow. "That was exactly what I was going for! The girls didn't believe me when I said Luke had the ugliest laugh. I had to demonstrate."

"Wow. That was why you were making that noise?" Jesse replied, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "So...Luke is..."

"Ex-boyfriend," Beca answered. "I mean, dude, that laugh."

"Fair enough," Jesse smiled. "Let me get you that drink."

He got her a drink and one of himself. Neither of them knew who started the next conversation but halfway through their drinks, they found themselves talking much more easily. The girls and Benji checked in once a while but either by coincidence or more likely by design, left them both alone propping the bar.

"So you're a fireman." Beca said.

"Yep," Jesse answered, smiling that warm smile again. "Always wanted to be one."

"Let me guess," Beca said. "It's the pole, right? You've always wanted to slide down that fireman pole when you were a kid."

"You got me," Jesse smiled.

"Don't blame you, dude," Beca replied. "I slide up and down that pole all day long."

Suddenly, Stacie's comment about sliding down his pole came to mind and Beca found her face flaming. She quickly down her drink, which was the wrong move. The alcohol burned on the way down and she started coughing.

"Are you alright?" Jesse asked, sounding genuinely concerned. He had his hand on her lower back and peered into her face to check whether she was ok. His breath was tickling her cheek and Beca was suddenly super aware on how nice he smelled.

"Ermm..yes, I'm fine," she quickly replied, her voice a little shrill. "Please don't give me CPR."

His laugh was like velvet.

"No, I don't think you need CPR right now," Jesse answered. He was staring at her a little funnily and Beca cleared her throat.

"So what do firemen do? Besides fighting fires," she started. "I mean you are firemen. So you'll put out fires. That is in the job description. But..umm..when you're not fire fighting -"

 _Oh my god, am I gabbling? Why the hell am I gabbling so much?_ \- Beca thought. - And I'm using my hands. Shit. Too much hands. Now he's looking at me like I'm a weirdo. Which I am. God, stop this, Becaaaa!

"Many things," Jesse replied, unaware of Beca's inner monologue. "We don't get a 911 every hour. Sometimes it's smaller emergencies like cutting stuck people out of weird places. I could tell you some stories about that. Most of the time, we do lots of drills and maintenance. You know that fire hose on the fire engine? That thing always need drying. And we save cats out of trees. That happens like all the time."

Fire hose? Cats in trees?

Damn Stacie and her dirty talk!

"We do community outreach. Like talking to kids about fire safety and installing free fire alarms," Jesse continued, oblivious to Beca's flushed face. He then looked down at his drink. "We also do charity work...like...mfmganshder"

Beca didn't picked up the last few words because he was mumbling now. It was dim at the bar but she could see he was blushing.

"What was that? The last bit?" Beca asked, intrigued now.

"Charity work?" Jesse replied. "We do charity work."

"Like...?" Beca prompted. But he kept schtum, blushing redder than ever. "Hang on...which precinct did you say your station was?"

"Errrr...43rd."

Then it hit her what he was embarrassed about.

"Holy shit! You posed for a calendar!" Beca yelled out. "A naked calendar!"

"Ssshh! Not too loud," Jesse shushed her, putting a hand over Beca's mouth. She had a fit of giggles and nearly fell off her stool. Luckily Jesse was close enough to catch her and she leaned into him for support.

"Ok!" Jesse admitted. "I did pose for the calendar but I wasn't entirely naked. There was a strategically placed fire hydrant. And it's for charity!"

"Dude, you were naked," Beca hiccuped, still laughing. She whipped out her phone and started to google furiously. "Which month were you? June? July? My friend has the calendar in her office but I didn't exactly look..."

Jesse was trying to take her phone out of her hands but Beca can be really wriggly when she wanted to. She tapped the images that came out and...well, hello Mr. September. The calendar had been tastefully shot in black and white. There was a group photo of five hot firemen, striding towards the camera and Jesse was one of them. Ok, it was just not fair how hot they looked topless like this, with their face and chest smeared with dirt. And how those trousers were slung low around their hips? Beca quickly thumbed thought to September, to a full page photo of Jesse and the strategically placed fire hydrant. Her eyes nearly popped out. That's how he look under all that clothes? Okaaaay, she might have to save this image for later. For...ermm research purposes.

Beca tore her eyes away from those distracting images to find fully clothed Jesse standing beside her, looking a little embarrassed.

"I think it's sweet of you to do this," Beca pronounced, waving her phone at Jesse.

"Really?" Jesse asked, looking a little hopeful.

"Yeah." Beca nodded. "I mean you could have caught a cold. Being naked and all."

"Ok, let's not talk about this," Jesse answered swiftly.

"Why are you embarrassed about this?" Beca said. "You're doing a good thing. Don't get big headed but you looked kinda hot and your butt's quite cute."

Jesse raised his brows.

"Don't want to brag," he said in a mock humble tone. "But I got fan mail."

"You didn't!" Beca exclaimed in surprise.

"Yep, I did." Jesse said and then he frowned. "Actually, come to think of it, my butt got fan mail. Does this mean I've got butt mail?"

She couldn't help that peal of laughter coming out from her and when her laughter petered off, Beca found him staring at her again.

"Dude, what's with the staring? It's creeping me out."

"Oh. Sorry," Jesse replied. He then shook his head slowly. "I just can't believe I've made a complete fool of myself in front of you."

Beca was just about to answer when they both heard a loud whoop and Stacie was staggering towards them, propping Chloe one one side. Chloe was clearly drunk by the way she was warbling incoherently and trying to get back to the dance floor, saying she had to look for Benji, who had somehow disappeared in the crowd of dancers.

"Beca, Red's drunk," Stacie called out. "I think we need to call it a night. I'll go find Amy."

"Becaaaaaa," Chloe hailed her drunkenly. The ginger staggered over, wrapping her arms around the tiny brunette. Beca nearly fell over if Jesse had not quickly steady her. "Beca, I had too mush jiggle jooooss. Dose fie yer men hot. Can I bring Ben.. Ben gee home?"

"We need to use our 'inside' voice, Chlo." Beca said calmly as she tried to untangle Chloe's squidgy arms from around her neck. "Please keep your hands to yourself. We are going home now."

"But Ben-gee..."

"Ben-gee...I mean, Benji will be going home with his friend, Jesse, here." Beca said firmly. "Now, sit down here and don't wander off. You have to tell me if you want to go somewhere, OK?" Chloe was mumbling something and Beca nodded. "Yes, boobies are great but please don't touch them."

Once Chloe settled down on the nearest bar stool, Beca turned to Jesse, smiling apologetically.

"You handled that pretty well," Jesse commented, looking impressed.

"I'm a school teacher," Beca replied. "Most of the time talking to a drunk friend is like talking to a toddler."

They were interrupted again when Stacie and Fat Amy turned up, with the blondie looked a little worse for wear. Beca knew she and Stacie will have a fun time settling these two into bed.

"We gotta go," Beca said reluctantly.

"Alright," Jesse said, sounding equally reluctant. "I've gotta find Benji. He's going to have such a hangover tomorrow."

"Yeah, ok."

"It was great meeting you."

"Yeah. You too. Thanks for the drink."

"Becaaaaaa..." Another wail came up from Chloe. "I need to pee! Now. Now. Now. I really need to pee now."

"I need to pee too!" Amy groaned, holding on to herself and jumping from foot to foot.

Beca flashed Jesse a quick smile before propping the ginger on one shoulder. He stood by the bar, watching her intently, that smile still on his face. Beca waved a distracted goodbye towards his direction as she walked/limped towards the bathroom as fast as possible with Chloe clinging to her side. Both Staice and her managed to get the two drunk girls into Stacie's car and Beca slid into the shotgun seat.

Great. Just great.

Beca never would have believed that Chloe would be the one to cock-block her. She didn't even have chance even to buy him a drink, let alone ask him out for dinner. To thank him, of course. She was a well brought up girl and he did try to save her life, after all. No chance of that now.

She nearly missed that buzz coming from her phone.

Beca read the incoming message and her scowl immediately turned into a smile. Stacie glanced over to her just before she started the car.

"What's that smile for?" she asked Beca innocently.

"Oh nothing," Beca replied, as she quickly typed a reply back and popped the phone back into her clutch. "I've got a date."

Stacie merely hummed back, carefully putting the car into gear and driving off. It was when they were nearly home and the two drunks were peacefully snoring at the back that Stacie spoke up,"You owe me lunch."

"What for?" Beca asked in surprise.

"For hooking you up with the hot Mr. September," Stacie remarked. At Beca's surprised grunt, Stacie laughed. "You think I didn't know? I recognised him the moment he was dryhumping you over that table and you were 'choking'." The taller girl turned her head towards Beca and gave her a wink. "Now aren't you glad I gave him your number?"

* * *

OK, should I write more chapters? Does anyone want to see Beca sliding down the fireman's pole? Answers on a postcard, failing which a PM or a review. Lots of love from Nora!


	2. Chapter 2 : The Date

**PROMPT**

 _"I'm not good on roller-coasters. You had the misfortune of sitting near me so, uh… sorry…"_

* * *

 **Chapter Two : The Date**

As a fireman, Benji was trained to carefully appraise any situation. Yes, they would have to make split second decisions depending on what unfurls along the way but it was no good to stupidly headlong into an emergency without some sort of assessment. That would be stupid and dangerous; which was why he was standing right here out of harm's way, his head cocked to one side, carefully regarding what was in front of him.

Jesse was slumped face down on one of the makeshift camp beds they have at the station. This didn't look right. Jesse had a date with that hot girl he heimliched into submission at the restaurant last week. He wasn't sure how Jesse manage to recover from such a spectacular mishap but apparently he did and he got a date last night. By right, Jesse should be singing from the rooftops this morning but he had came in at the start of the shift, moodier than Benji had ever seen. What exactly happened here? Benji prodded Jesse's leg with his foot.

"Hey buddy," he tentatively spoke up. "You ok there?"

Jesse's response was a muffled moan. Ok, his friend was alive; that much Benji could tell. This could only mean one thing.

"Alright," Benji bravely asked. "How bad was it?"

All he got in reply was another dismal groan.

Whoa. THAT bad? But how could it be? For the whole week, all that Benji and the rest of the station heard was about THE date. Jesse was positively bouncing with excitement. How the other guys at the station didn't already punch him or gag him with duct tape was nothing short of a miracle. His excitable friend was very much looking forward to it and judging by the way Jesse had anxiously prepared for the date, it was going to be a good one. Benji was resigned to have his ears bent today about how perfect the date went. But now this?

"Yo! What's wrong with Swanson?"

Benji turned towards the door to find Donald lounging by the doorframe. He was soon joined by a shorter man with pasty complexion and sandy hair. Both of them were grinning at the pathetic spectacle of Jesse Swanson deep in his funk.

"What's wrong with lover boy?' Bumper called out, both him and Donald coming into the room. "Wasn't yesterday the big date? What happened?"

"Well….let's see," Donald drawled out, slouching over to where Jesse lay. "Exhibit A. Jesse Swanson. Down in the dumps. Groaning like a sick puppy. What do you think happened, detective?" "

"Obviously, our 'hot for teacher' friend here struck out last night." Bumper chuckled. "Clearly, teacher didn't ask him to stay after class for extra credits."

"Sad," Donald teased, laughing back. "How could it be?"

"I dunno," Bumper replied. "Maybe he was really bad at oral?"

Benji did try his best to muffle that initial snort but it was hard not to. He felt very bad for laughing though. He was supposed to be on Jesse's side.

"You know, I always like going out with a school teacher," Donald piped up, clearly trying to get a rise out of Jesse. "Don't go out with nurses. Nurses are the worst. They are always saying _'Put that thing away. It's not hygienic'_ but teachers? Teachers are always saying ' _Good work, babe. Now do it again'_."

The guys were laughing out loud.

Jesse finally hoisted himself up from the bed and glared at them.

"You guys are dicks," Jesse spoke up churlishly. He eyed both Donald and Bumper in turn. "Which one of you dickheads messed with my car? Who was the one who put all those condoms inside?"

"Umm..what condoms, bud?" Benji asked in confusion.

"The ones that RAINED down when Beca flip the car visor! All over her!" Jesse answered hotly. Bumper and Donald's peals of laughter went up a notch. "And you dicks have to use the small size!"

Bumper and Donald were holding to each other for support by now.

"Oh those," Bumper spoke up, wiping the tears from his eyes. He stopped laughing long enough to ask Jesse. "Did she open the glove box? No? Aw, too bad."

"What the hell did you hide in my glove compartment?" Jesse yelled out, turning quite pale.

"Dude, just be thankful she didn't open that box," Donald answered, still snickering. "- or your date would have ended right there and then."

Jesse merely grunted in reply and rubbed his face hard. "Maybe it should have ended there," he groaned. "That way I won't make such an ass of myself."

His friends all exchanged a look and immediately homed in.

"Ok, I think we need to start at the very beginning," Benji started.

"Yeah, we are here for you, buddy," Benji joined in, giving Jesse a slap on his back. He tried to look as sincere as he possibly could. Jesse just stared suspiciously at them before staring at the ceiling and sighing out loud.

"It all started well -" he began.

The guys exchanged looks and took their seats gleefully.

"Bought a bunch of flowers for her. Was at her place on time. She met me at the door, wearing this really cute yellow dress. Her hair was all curled up nice; you know how girls sometimes curl the ends of their hair. She looked really pretty," Jesse said.

"Get on to the juicy stuff, Swanson." Bumper prompted.

Jesse gave Bumper a sour look and totally ignored the man.

"Even when the condoms landed smack on her lap, it was fine," Jesse continued. "I was mortified, of course but she was a good sport. She just laughed and flicked one at me."

"Dude, she laughed at Bumper's prank?" Donald chipped in. "Wife that girl."

Bumper glanced at Donald looking annoyed before saying to Jesse. "What happened next, dude?"

Jesse had a faraway look in his eyes as he recalled the date with Beca.

"Well, we went for dinner at that new Italian place. It was great. We were talking and flirting. No choking or stupid first aid stuff this time round. We had a connection, you know. She was telling me funny stories about her job. I was telling her about mine…"

"God, no wonder you didn't get anywhere with teacher," Bumper sneered, rolling his eyes. "Most boring date ever."

"Shut up, Bumper," Donald spoke up, slapping Bumper on the back of his head. His eyes landed on Jesse. "Dude, it all sounds good. How did you struck out?"

"I'm getting to it," Jesse replied, sounding annoyed. "I thought it would be nice if we went to the fairground, you know. The one by the pier?"

"Ok. Cute. Can be romantic," Donald nodded in approval. "So what the hell went wrong?"

* * *

"Beca, you have to stop wailing," Chloe was saying. "I can't understand you when you are going all crazy hands. Stacie, come in here!"

At Chloe's yell, Stacie came into Beca's room. Chloe was sitting at the edge of Beca's bed, silently trying to communicate to Stacie with her eyes. Beca was not an early riser on weekends but it was already past noon and she was still in her pyjamas, curled up in her bed, clutching onto what looked huge pink unicorn. Stacie blinked at the sight. Beca was not the clutching-on-to-soft-toy type of girl.

"What's happening here?" the taller brunette asked, coming over in to Beca's bed. All she could hear was Beca making the most unnatural squeaks while Chloe was frantically mouthing to her _"Bad date. Baaaaddd date."_

Stacie frowned. "Didn't Beca had that date last night? With hot Mr. September? "

"Yep." Chloe answered on Beca's behalf.

"How bad can it be? He's smoking!" Stacie replied in disbelief. "Well, he's a fireman. He's always smoking but you know what I mean."

"The date started fine," Chloe started, taking on herself to tell the start of the story. "I was spying at the window. He was a little eager and came early. Showed up at the doorstep looking really cute with a plaid top and jeans. Even got flowers for her."

"Sounds promising," Stacie said. "Was it the dinner? Oh god, did he try to dryhump her on the table again? That guy needs to learn some control!"

"No. No." Chloe shook her head. "Dinner was great. Apparently they talked a lot. He was very sweet. Said all the right things. Leaned in, tried to impress her a little. You know, normal guy stuff."

"What the hell happened?" Stacie piped up, confused now. "Sounds like a great date."

"He brought her to the fairground."

And a loud keening wail came out of Beca.

* * *

"Ok, dude, you have to stop groaning and continue."

Jesse had slumped forward again, his face in his hands. Benji awkwardly patted him on his back while Bumper and Donald were grinning far too widely.

"Come on," Benji reasoned. "It can't be that bad."

Jesse looked up.

"It was not. It was great in the beginning," he slowly continued. "It was dark by the time we arrived at the fairground so everything was lit up and pretty. She seemed happy to be there, wanting to head straight for the rides." Jesse broke off, groaning again. "That should have been my first clue."

"Dude, you should totally take her onto those rides," Bumper advised. "Right on top of the Ferris Wheel. Shake that thing a bit. Boom! She clutches on you for dear life; you're in!"

Benji was shaking his head slowly. "No, it doesn't work that way. Not for Jesse."

"Whaddaya mean? It totally works that way," Bumper insisted. "Nothing like a fairground to show how macho you are. Hey Jess, did you show off at those games stalls? Tell me you did."

"Of course I did!" Jesse answered. "You know me. I got that part covered. I even won her the biggest prize at the shooting gallery."

"Then what happened?" Bumper questioned impatiently. "Why did hot teacher not give you straight As?"

"She wanted to go on the roller coasters."

* * *

"Roller coasters? But Beca loves that kind of thing," Stacie mused. "Remember we had to pry her away from the rides at Six Flags? And I think I've never seen anyone had that many go's on the Aerosmith ride at Disney World."

"Yeah, we all know that," Chloe agreed. "I don't think Jesse knew but he scored sooooo many brownie points by bringing her there. And you know how horny Beca gets when she's anywhere near that sort of adrenaline."

"I know," Stacie said, her lips spreading into a smile. "Remember when she was going out with Aidan and they got stuck at that ride? I am pretty certain a blowjob was involved."

"I. Did. Not. Give. A. Blowjob to Aidan on the It's a small world ride!"

Beca had surfaced from behind the fluffy pink unicorn and was now furiously glaring at her two friends.

Stacie winked at Chloe. "Oh hey, Beca. You can speak now?"

"Stop saying I give blowjobs on rides!" Beca exclaimed. "I don't."

"I don't know Bec," Stacie countered back. "When you both came down from that ride, you looked pretty pleased with yourself and he had that slightly shellshocked look on his face."

"Boobs!" Beca said. "I let him touched my boobs."

"Ohhhhh," Stacie drawled out in understanding. "You have to tell us these things, Beca. We won't know unless you tell us. Like what happened yesterday during your date?"

Beca suddenly realised she was effectively cornered by her devious friend. They were looking innocently at her but Beca was not fooled. Her friends were nosy and bothersome and would stop at nothing to weasel information out of her. She might as well tell them now.

"Alright, you know how I get around rides?" Beca started. Both Chloe and Stacie could barely contained their grins. They nodded swiftly and scooched nearer to Beca. "Well, the rides at the fairground were pretty good and I wanted to go straightaway. There was the Big Dipper, dudes. Only the fastest, scariest roller coaster in this county! But Jesse was saying we should play some games instead."

"Games eh? Does it involved some handcuffs? " Stacie leered. "Oh wait. He's a fireman. Sorry. Wrong pun."

"Do you want to hear the story or not?" Beca chided the taller brunette, glaring at her.

Stacie looked suitably chastised and Beca continued. "We went round the game stalls. You know, the usual. Basketball hoops, darts, shooting, that sort of thing but all the while I was chaffing to get on the rides."

"Was he winning stuff for you?" Chloe asked out of nowhere.

Beca nodded.

"Yeah. He won me this unicorn." Beca wiggled the hoof of the giant unicorn next to her. She was slightly alarmed when both girls started squeaking in excitement. "What the hell, dudes?"

"Aw, Bec. He really likes you!" Chloe cooed. Stacie was nodding in agreement. "See how he's trying to show off?"

Beca thought about it for a minute. Yeah, he was being really sweet and the fairground was kinda romantic. They had weaved in and out of the stalls at the fairground. She got them some popcorn and he bought her this huge cloud of pink candy floss, which she insisted he should take a bite. It was adorable how the floss stuck to his mouth and cheek and Beca had immediately brushed it away with her fingers. He had smiled down at her when she did that and she had the urge to go on her tippy toes and kiss his lips.

Despite all her complaints about the games, secretly Beca was a little bowled over that he was winning those for her. The fluffy unicorn was something else entirely. Beca's mouth had dropped open when he scored the winning shot. He had that huge, boyish grin plastered on his face and beckoned at her to choose her prize. She was rooted to the ground, unable to say anything and Jesse had chose the largest, fluffiest prize available at the booth. She was now the proud owner of a pink unicorn.

"Beca? Beca!"

Stacie's voice broke into her reverie and Beca quickly cleared her throat.

"Umm...where was I?"

"By the way you were staring into thin air, I think you were thinking of Jesse's fireman pole," Stacie winked. Something crossed her mind and Stacie stopped short. "Wait. It's more like a rampant pole, right, and not a floppy hose? Is this what it's all about? He had a floppy hose?"

"Oh my god! Can you stop with those bad puns already?" Beca yelled. "He did not show me his..errmm...floppy hose!"

"Ignore her, Bec," Chloe piped up, swatting Stacie on her arm. "What happened next?"

"Like I said, I wanna head straight for the rides but Jesse kept putting that off," Beca explained. She had a glassy look on her face again and then groaned out loud. "Shit! That should have been my first clue!"

"But you did get on the rides?" Stacie prodded, curious now.

"Of course I did!" Beca replied. "All it took was a kiss and he was putty."

"Whoa! You kissed?" Chloe and Stacie squealed.

"He won me this big ass toy and smiling so prettily at me," Beca whined in defence. "Dimples everywhere! I couldn't resist it. I really wanted to kiss him earlier when he had all cotton candy fluff on his mouth." Beca shrugged. "So I did."

"Nice," Stacie said.

"He was easy after that and we queued up for the Big Dipper."

"And?"

"We got on the ride. I was excited as hell I didn't even check on how he was doing. I mean, guys like this kind of things, right?"

"They totally do," Chloe agreed. "Gives them a chance to be all manly."

"Well, it didn't work that way," Beca croaked, looking paler than ever. She passed a hand over her face. "The ride was awesome. The first climb was slow and agonising. You know, that click click sound you get when the coaster climbs up and up? Man, it sounded so scary. The whole thing was shaking and rickety and the wind was blowing; you see the whole fairground below you. Then came the first dip, falling straight down,mfollowed by three loops. My heart just dropped to my stomach. I was yelling out so hard - "

Beca stopped. She was looking a little green round her face now and clapped her hand over her mouth. Both Stacie and Chloe was staring at her in fascination.

"And?" Stacie prompted.

"What happened next?" Chloe squeaked.

Beca took a deep breath, slowly removed her hand from her mouth and said. "He -"

* * *

"You did what?" Bumper yelled.

"He did what?" Bumper yelled again, this time turning to Donald for confirmation.

Donald was staring at Jesse in morbid fascination, his jaw hanging open. He gulped once and then twice before drawling out in disbelief. "Duuuuude."

"Oh God," Benji groaned out, feeling Jesse's pain now. "Why did you go on that coaster, dude? Why"

Jesse was rubbing his face now. "I know, I know," he admitted miserably. "What am I to do? She...she kissed me. Everything that happened after that was a complete haze. I even forgot how bad I am with roller coasters."

A stunned sort of silence descended between them. The whole horror of the date was sinking it and Bumper suddenly snorted out loud. "You threw up on her? This girl you were totally hot for and you fucking went and threw up on her?"

"Bumper, shut up..." Jesse groaned but Bumper was in hysterics.

"Was this after the ride? Tell me you managed to keep it down until after the ride."

At Jesse's silence, Bumper choked out, gasping. He was more shocked than anything else. "It was during the ride? Dude...how bad was it? Where did it land? Was it on her lap?"

"It would have gone all over the guy in front of me," Jesse admitted, closing his eyes now. What happened last night was replaying in slo-mo in front of his eyes. "Except there was this strong wind. And she turned her head to look at me -"

* * *

"He threw up in your face?!"

Chloe's shriek could deafen someone in the next room. Beca looked at her friends's faces in turn. Chloe had both hand clutching her cheeks in horror. The normally unflappable Stacie looked like she was about to be sick. Both of them had their mouths hanging open.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have insisted he got on the ride," Beca wailed. "It was terrible! I turned to check on him. He looked a bit sick and then this wall of vomit flew at me."

"Oh my god, Beca," Stacie rasped out.

Beca gulped. "That's not even the worse part."

"What? How?" Chloe was stuttering. "He threw up in your face! How can that not be the worst part?"

Beca clutched the stuffed unicorn and took another calming breath.

"We got off the ride. I literally had vomit on one side of my head. He was very apologetic," Beca continued through gritted teeth. "There was not enough tissues in my bag. The ladies line was a mile long. So he had this idea to help me clean off with a little water from a pipe."

"Well, his firefighting skills would come to good use," Chloe said.

"Umm no," came Beca's reply. "He misjudged the pressure."

* * *

"You what?" Benji squeaked out, horrified. "You tried to hose her down? Dude, she's not a dog!"

"I had to do something. I felt so bad," Jesse bleated. "There was a stand pipe and I thought I could help. But umm...the pressure was a bit too strong."

"Dude, stop! You're killing me here!" Bumper said. "Please don't tell me - "

"I was so nervous I forgot how tiny she was," Jesse mumbled. "She was drenched from head to foot. And muddy. The blast sent her falling backwards into a puddle."

A chorus of " _Dude! You're a fireman!"_ went up and Jesse groaned in response. "I know...I know. That was not even the end of it."

"How could you top that?" Donald asked in disbelief.

Jesse sighed out loud.

"On the way to the exit, because the date was pretty much over by then -" he mumbled. "We ran into her boss and two of her kids from school."

* * *

"Principal Geller? You ran into Principal Geller?"

Chloe's voice was a choked whisper. She had used up her voice squealing just now and could only whisper out her continued horror at this date from hell.

"He was with his wife and two kids," Beca moaned. "The younger Geller is in my class. She's really fond of me, remember?"

"I hope you managed to avoid them," Chloe said hopefully.

"No such luck," Beca replied. "Susie Geller literally ran straight at me, screaming my name, wanting a hug. I had to catch her before she did that. I was a mess and sopping wet. Principal Geller came up with his wife and I was forced to make some small tallk. The stupid bitch wife was giving me judgy eyes and then..."

"Oh God, what else could have happened?" Stacie whispered out.

"Nothing. Susie Geller just said in a very loud voice _Miss Beca, you smell AWFUL! You smell like vomit_ ," Beca said in defeat.

A loud peal of laughter came out of Chloe and Stacie, which made Beca jumped. She eyed them beadily, thinking whether it would be wrong to stab her two best friends.

"Why are you both laughing?" she whined. ""You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Well, technically Little Miss Geller won't be wrong," Stacie chortled out loud. "You were covered with vomit, Beca. You would reek of it. That sort of smell clings like fuck. Remember how Aubrey's used to linger?"

Beca looked a little sick at the thought.

Chloe was wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye. "Oh, it made sense now," she said. "I was wondering why the washing machine was switched on late last night. You must have been trying to wash your dress." Chloe's eyes lit up. "OMG I would give anything to see how you looked like. Did Jesse snap a pic? What's his Instagram? Let me check."

"He'd better not! You do no such thing!" Beca said hotly.

Both her friends were already busy tapping on their phones and Beca retreated behind the unicorn. She was not a soft toy sort of person but hugging this pink, fluffy beast of a thing seemed to make her feel a little better. Worst date ever. Last night surely qualified for worst date ever, right?

After that very uncomfortable conversation with her boss and his wife with the judgy eyes, Jesse sent her straight home. To his credit, he stayed quiet the rest of the ride back. He probably knew there was nothing he could say to make the whole shitstorm better and to be honest, right at that moment Beca was too shell shocked and far too humiliated to say anything.

The car journey couldn't be fast enough.

Like a gent, he had walked her up to the door and he stood awkwardly at the step as she looked for her keys. "I'm really sorry," he had apologised softly. He was still holding on to that fluffy unicorn whom, by some strange luck, had emerged unscathed through the entire debacle" When Beca was about to step inside, he hesitantly offered it to her. "Here. Umm..it's yours."

She just nodded, taking the proffered present. She smiled a little grimly, not quite meeting his eyes before going inside and shutting the door behind her. Jesse stayed on the porch for a while longer. From the other side of the door, she could hear him exhaling a deep breath before slowly moving away, making his way back to his car.

How could a date get so wrong?

She had been looking forward to the date all week. In all honesty, it started so well. Those condoms, obviously pranked by his friends, were hilarious, dinner was delicious and the conversation was great. When he drew up at the fairground's parking lot, he hit a home run. Jesse didn't know it but he was so about to get lucky that night. Beca was sure she would be checking out whether those calendar photos were the real deal later on that night. Somehow a face full of vomit and being hurled backwards into a muddy puddle by a strong jet of water sort of put a dampener on those plans.

Beca sighed into the fluffy beast she was holding on to.

Oh well, at least there were no pictorial proof of that disastrous date. It was not as if she would see him again. He wouldn't want to see her again, right? Both of them could move on and chalked this down as a bad date.

"Ok, good news or bad news?"

Beca blinked and lowered down the unicorn. Chloe and Stacie were gazing at her. Beca's eyes flitted down to the phones in their hands and her throat went dry. Shit! Did Swanson took photos of her? When did he do it? When she was frantically trying to mop up the vomit off her hair? When she was trying to wring out the water from her dress? Shit. Shit. Shit. Damn him! Damn that hot firefighter with the sweet smile and cute butt!

"Bad news," Beca croaked, shutting her eyes tight. "Gimme the bad news."

"Bad news is Jesse didn't take any photos," Chloe pouted. "I've traced his IG and Twitter from Benji's and nothing. Nada. Zilch."

Beca opened one eye.

"How is that bad news? That's really good," she replied.

"Good news for you but _bad news for us_!" Chloe huffed. "We really want to see you covered in vomit, Beca."

No. Beca was shaking her head firmly. There was no way anyone would see her in that state. Thank God there were no photos. Beca was about to heave a sigh of relief when Stacie spoke up.

" _Good news for us though_ \- " Stacie said, an evil grin etched on her face. She waved her phone at her and Beca eyed the little device with mounting horror. " _Guy pukes on girlfriend_ seems to be trending on Vine right now. You've gone viral, Beca!"

 _#BadDate_


	3. Chapter 3 : The Aftermath

**AN** : _For the magnificient Jae. Half of what you wanted, bae 'cos you are amazing. Happy belated graduation!_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 _Prompt : Impromptu rap battle but we are both drunk as fuck I hope you know the words to Gangsta Paradise._

* * *

How on earth did her friends persuaded her to do this?

Beca stood on the pavement, looking up at the neat house with the dark green door in front of her. It was around 9pm and it was already dark. The streets were quiet although Beca was sure she saw the curtains twitching at the window of the house next door. Probably some nosy neighbour checking out why some strange girl was standing out on the pavement at this time of the night.

Beca didn't give a fuck really.

She was too busy, trying to piece together what transpired in the last two hours.

The evening started ordinarily enough. They went round to Aubrey's for a girl's night in since Aubrey was heavily pregnant. Aubrey prepped the salad and Stacie cooked pasta. There was some wine and they were supposed to finish with some ice-cream and Amy's famous tiramisu. They would talked and gossiped and they would go home. At least, that was the plan. So what actually happened? For the record, this was not the first time that Beca suspected either Stacie or Chloe had in their possession of some sort of mind altering drug. They must have slipped one into her food because fuck knows how she ended up here, outside Jesse's house, clutching a bottle of tequila?

* * *

 **Two hours earlier**

" _So_ _ooooo_ _..Beca," Aubrey said, after daintily wiping her mouth with a napkin. Beca's head shot up in mild panic at the drawl coming from Aubrey. A long-drawn out syllable from the uptight blonde was never good news. You have to be wary when Aubrey do that._ _"The girls were saying you have not_ _quite_ _gotten over your 'little' mishap."_

 _Yep, not good news and trust Aubrey to downplay being puked on your face as a little mishap._

" _What about it?" Beca scowled, already reaching out for more pasta. Maybe if she carbo-load herself, she'll fall into a food coma and would not have to deal with this._

" _Your little failed date," Aubrey continued, warming up to the subject. "I heard you were still moping. Really, Beca, you should stop sulking about it."_

" _Aubrey, I got puked on. In my face. And the Vine went viral," Beca stated flatly. "I think I've earned the right to sulk as long as I want to."_

 _"Oh Beca, it was weeks ago," Aubrey replied. "You should put this behind you. The footage was not that great. It was all blurry - "_

 _"We were on a roller coaster." Beca muttered back. "Of course, it's blurry."_

 _"- we only hear that guy throwing up and you screaming -"_

 _"Jesus Christ, please don't remind me."_

 _"- honestly, no one can tell it was you -" Aubrey concluded._

 _"Because the vomit covered half my face, Aubrey!" Beca retorted back._

 _"The point is, Beca -" Aubrey said, a little wearily. "I think you're forgetting that you are a Bella woman. And as a Bella, you should rise above this. It's not very becoming to mope over this for so long. The sooner you let it go, the better." Aubrey reached over to pat Beca's hand. "Now, as one former captain to another, let's put this little incident behind us and set a good example to the others, shall we? You have the Bella woman values to uphold."_

 _Beca's answer was an impatient eye roll. Trust Aubrey to think that way._

 _Later on in the car on the way back home, Beca was still thinking of what Aubrey said. Stacie was driving, she was shotgun as usual and Chloe was hiccuping happily at the back. She had her fair share of all that wine that Aubrey couldn't touch._

" _So you guys think I'm moping too much?" Beca asked out loud._

 _There was a beat of silence before Stacie spoke up._ " _Yes, you should stop moping, Beca."_

 _That itself took Beca by surprise. Stacie rarely agrees with Aubrey on principle_

 _"All this moping is not solving anything," Stacie continued, her eyes still on the road. "You should call him up."_

 _"Who?" Beca said, confused._

 _"Jesse." Stacie replied. "You should call him."_

 _Beca whipped round to stare at Stacie, her eyes nearly popping out in disbelief. "You've got to be shitting me, right?"_

 _"Why not?" Stacie shrugged. "I thought you like him."_

 _"For fuck's sake, he threw up on me! Which guy can get over something like that?" Beca swore._

 _"He did send you all those texts," Stacie countered back. "And those flowers."_

 _Yes, that was true. He had been apologetic, ashamed even. A flurry of texts and messages came through and that huge bunch of flowers._

" _He's waiting for you to say something," Chloe suddenly piped in from the back. The redhead leant forward into the space between them and hiccuped merrily. "Benji told me Jesse's been a wreck for weeks. You didn't reply to his texts so he thought he'll leave you alone. You should totally go and see him."_

" _What the hell?" Beca nearly yelled out. "Are you guys crazy?"_

" _Nope. We -" Stacie roped in Chloe into the equation as well. "-think you should give him another chance. Go see him. Now. Tonight. Go over to his place and get this whole thing cleared up. Better still, bring a bottle of whisky. Get stupid blind drunk and get over this..this little hump."_

 _Beca was staring open-mouthed at both her friends._

" _I – I don't even know where he lives," Beca croaked back."He might be on duty."_

" _Nope," Chloe said, looking up from her phone where she had been busy texting. "Benji said they are over at Jesse's. He's definitely not working tonight. And don't worry. I have his address."_

 _Beca stared at Chloe and Stacie in turn. Their suggestion sounded too well planned to be something they thought on an impulse. "Dude, you're both mad. You think I should go to Jesse's house? Right now?"_

" _Yes."_

" _And get drunk?"_

" _Blind drunk."_

" _Don't you think it's dangerous?" Beca replied weakly. "We all know what Aubrey's going to say about this. We are to uphold the Bella -"_

" _What does Aubrey has to do with this?" Stacie cut in. "Look, just go over there and put that poor guy out of his misery, ok? You like him. He obviously likes you. We all know that. Go and have fun. Get drunk. Puke on him to even the odds. We'll come and rescue you in a few hours, I promise."_

* * *

And that was how she ended up here.

They had driven her there and prised her out of Stacie's car, still cajoling her what a fab idea this was and she had numbly followed. Then the girls had drove off, promising to come back in three hours. Beca stared up at the house. The porch light was on and the whole place looked so neat and tidy. From what she remembered he had inherited the house from his grandma and lived alone. His car was in the driveway. Jesse Swanso was definitely in.

Beca swallowed hard and then squared her shoulders.

It was now or never.

* * *

 **Inside Jesse's house**

That was a little strange.

Benji frowned at the text that pinged in from Chloe. She had been sending weird texts lately like asking when Jesse was on duty, where the guys were and what they were doing. Honestly, if he had not met Chloe and knew she was really rather sweet, Benji would think she was a stalker. The latest text had been pretty cryptic too. Something about clearing the way for three hours?

"Dude, are you in or out?" Donald said, breaking into Benji's thoughts. "Come on. This game is not going to play itself."

"Ok. Gimme a sec," Benji answered, keeping his phone.

"Whose that from?" Jesse asked, watching Benji checking his texts.

"Umm…Chloe." Benji replied a little uncomfortably. He could see Jesse wanted to say something more but Jesse snapped his mouth shut, turning away. They resumed the game but Jesse was playing a little badly. It didn't take a genius to know why. It had been weeks but they all knew Jesse was still hung up about that bad date. So Benji and Donald had been hanging round Jesse, dragging him out to the bars to keep him distracted. Their attempts at making Jesse forget Beca Mitchell by maybe getting him out there and get him laid were failing spectacularly. The problem was Jesse genuinely like that little spitfire so here they were, on a Saturday evening, just hanging out at Jesse's place, playing Halo.

"Dude. Pizza's here!"

There was no need for Donald to holler. The sound of the front bell ringing had filtered through the house. Donald and Benji was in the middle of the game and Jesse got up to get the pizzas they ordered just now. He walked out of the games room, just off the hallway, fumbling with his wallet and extracting some notes. That had to be the fastest delivery ever. He just placed the order for three pepperoni less than fifteen minutes ago.

"Hey, that was qui - " Jesse said, throwing the door open.

Whatever Jesse wanted to say died in his throat.

It was not the pizza delivery guy.

Pizza delivery guys usually wear a red polo shirt, a cap of some sort and have stacks of pizza boxes in their arms. Pizza delivery guys did not look like a cute brunette in tight jeans and fitted plaid top and have huge, worried blue eyes looking up at him.

"Hi." the apparition spoke up. It had to be an apparition right? He must be hallucinating.

"B..Beca?" Jesse stuttered out. He was still standing dumbfounded at the doorway. Oh no. He didn't go stark raving crazy, did he?

"Hey, Jess." Beca said, smiling a little uncertainly at her say his name snapped Jesse back to the present. She still had that worried look on her face, like she was not entirely sure what she was doing. "Umm..." she was saying now. "I know this must be a surprise. I.. the girls… no, what I mean is .. that vine, you know.."

OK, it looked like he was not the only one feeling slightly awkward about the situation. It still did not explain why she materialised at the front of his door. He had been trying to get in touch for weeks without any success and suddenly here she was. Beca blew a breath out, lifting that dark curl on her forehead. Jesse had a sudden urge to brush that brown lock back.

"Ok," she said, drawing another deep breath and expelling it out. "What I'm trying to say is sorry for not replying to your texts. And messages. The flowers were lovely. Thank you."

Jesse tried saying "You're welcome" in reply, like the polite, well brought up guy that he was. But unfortunately, it came out like a cross between a gargle and a dog growling. Beca was staring at him now, frowning. He cleared his throat twice, his cheeks colouring up.

"You don't have to say anything," Beca said painfully embarrassed now. He didn't want to see her, she knew it. She blew it by staying away too long and it was all too excruciating now. "Umm.. I didn't get to buy you that drink when you 'saved' my life the other day. So I thought we could get drunk and maybe forget about the whole.. vomit... thing." She lifted up the bottle she had in her hand. "But I can see it's a bad idea. So I'm going to.. "

She was already turning away, her voice trailing away.

"Don't go."

Beca stopped. She heard Jesse clearing his throat again and this time the sounds he made were definitely human.

"Please don't go."

Beca turned round and he was still standing at the doorway. Except this time, his face was less like someone punched him cold and more like he was suffering from a toothache. He started to rub the back of his neck nervously and was now gazing at her with those freaking brown eyes.

"Tequila sounds…. Tequila sounds good," Jesse floundered over his words. "Great idea.. getting drunk. Come on in." He broke off swearing under his breath, flushing beetroot red. "What I meant to say is...would you like to come in?"

Beca nodded, not trusting herself to say anything and at her nod, she could see Jesse visibly relaxing. He had stepped aside, letting her come in and Beca waited until he closed the door before following him into the living room. She glanced around, showing polite interest.

"You have a nice place," she said, still a little stiff and unsure.

"Yeah. Well," Jesse responded back. He was still staring at her like he could not believe she was actually right in front of him. He must have stared too hard because Beca was now clearing her throat uncomfortably and Jesse remembered his manners. "Would you like to sit down? Let me get you a drink."

"Umm.. I've brought the drink?" Beca replied, awkwardly shaking the bottle she was holding.

"Oh. Yeah." Jesse stuttered back. "Ok. Let me.. let me get some glasses."

At that precise point, a muffled shout came down the hallway and Jesse was reminded who else were in the house.

"What's that?" Beca spoke up.

"Ermm… nothing," Jesse replied hastily. She sounded a little suspicious "It's a… it's… " he hemmed and hawed before continuing. "Why don't you take a seat and I get those glasses? Just gimme a minute." _Please don't leave_ – Jesse silently prayed. He must have stacked some good karma in his line of work because despite the skeptical look on her face, Beca was slowly nodding.

"I'll be right back," Jesse said, giving her his most reassuring smile before spinning round on his heels and heading straight to the games room.

* * *

"Where's the pizza?" Benji asked when Jesse appeared empty handed.

"Umm.." Jesse mumbled. "It's not the pizza guy."

"Who is it? " Donald asked. "Girl Scouts cookies? A bit late - Oh, hell no!" Donald broke off swearing when Benji got the better of him. The two were now head to head in an epic battle.

"No. Not Girl Scouts," Jesse replied. He cleared his throat. "It's Beca. It was Beca at the door."

The sound of two controllers clattering simultaneously onto the floor was actually quite funny. If Jesse were to stop and think about it, the synchronised way his two friends lost the use of their hands and the way their jaws dropped was really rather funny.

But Jesse could not think about it now.

Because he was silently freaking out.

"Beca?" Benji whispered. "THE Beca? The girl you heimliched humped and stomach sprayed?"

"Dude, she was here?" Donald said. "Why didn't you say anything, man?"

"She's still here," Jesse answered, sounding a little confounded. "She wanted to come in so I let her. She's in the living room."

Both Benji and Donald had abandoned the game and rushed to the door. If they tiptoe carefully and stretched their necks out at the right angle, they could just see into the living room without being discovered.

"Guys -" Jesse implored, his silent freaking out now rising exponentially. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?"

"Dude, firstly, she's hot, " Donald whisper-yelled, eyes trained on Beca sitting in the living room. "And secondly, stop freaking the fuck out, man."

"I can't!" Jesse wailed nervously. "What if I puke on her again? What if I -"

"Get a grip, man," Benii replied, holding on tightly to Jesse's arm and shaking him a little. "It's gonna be fine. There's no roller coaster within five miles of here. Stay away from any hose and for goodness sake, don't leave the house. You might bump into her boss again."

Jesse gulped a few nervous breaths.

"Ok," he said. "Ok, I can do that."

"Did she say why she's here?" Donald asked. He was still peeking into the living room. "I don't think she's here to kill you. I don't see any weapons."

"Of course not," Jesse replied. "Said something about not overthinking that Vine and we should share a bottle of tequila and get blind drunk."

He didn't quite expect the boys' reaction. Both Donald and Benji were staring at Jesse like he had won the lottery.

"She wanted to get drunk with you?" Benji squeaked. "Even after you made her swim in your vomit, doused her with mud and made her go viral, she still want to be here with you?"

Jesse blinked when it hit him.

"Yeah," he stuttered out in disbelief. Jesse blew out a breath out slowly and shook his head. Benji was right. He did all those things to her and yet she was still here, wanting to share a drink with him?

"Dude, I've said this once and I'll say it again. She's perfect. Wife that girl up." Donald started, eyeing Jesse owlishly. "Because if you don't, I will."

The three of them were staring out at Beca. She was standing in the middle of living room and perhaps thinking Jesse had been gone for some time, she slowly turned round and looked towards where Jesse had disappeared to. The boys ducked down hastily, narrowly avoiding being seen, but they were clumsy as fuck, falling all over themselves in the process. Benji also slammed the door a little too loud.

Hearing the dull thumps, Beca called out. "Jesse?"

She took a few cautious steps towards the hallway. Those thumps sounded just a little bit ominous and frankly, in the nervous state she was in, Beca couldn't help her mind from going into overdrive. Maybe it was a stupid idea to just come over to his place like this. They had only been on..what? One date? One disastrous date, Beca mentally corrected. She didn't know that much about him. He could be a serial killer.

"Jesse?" she called out again, this time hefting that bottle of tequila in her hand and walking into the hallway.

"Here!" she heard his nervy reply.

A door in the hallway opened and Jesse was standing at the doorway, looking a little sheepish. Behind him were two guys. She recognised Benji, of course, and the other guy was a tall, skinny, Indian man, wearing black hipster glasses.

"Oh," Beca said, flushing a little now, "I didn't know you had company. Umm... Sorry. Hi Benji."

"Hey Beca," Benji replied brightly. "Don't mind us. We were just playing Halo but Donald and I were just leaving."

"Don't leave on my account," Beca spoke up, painfully embarrassed now. "Jesse and I can catch up ano-"

"Nooooo."

Three male voices rose up in a chorus. Beca's eyes widened in surprise. Donald stepped in smoothly. "Hey we've not met. I'm Donald. I work with Jesse," he said, offering his hand out for a shake.

"Hi," Beca said, shaking Donald's hand.

"Jesse talks a lot about you," Donald said, warming up with a flirtatious smile. "But he didn't say how gorgeous you are. I think he's...Oww!" Benji had somehow jabbed Donald at his side and gave him a pointed look. "...Okaaaay, we should really get going," Donald continued. "Nice to see you. Maybe we can hang out next time?"

"Umm..sure. Yeah," Beca mumbled back, sounding confused.

After a few bumbled attempts at leaving and nearly running into the pizza delivery guy, Benji and Donald finally got out of the house and Jesse closed the front door behind the pair. He turned round to face Beca, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. He had a crooked smile on his face as he tried to apologise. "Sorry for that."

"Your friends are..umm.. friendly," Beca remarked, lifting one eyebrow.

"Oh. Don't mind Donald. That how he is," Jesse answered. "He was not hitting on you." _He was SO hitting on_ _you_ \- Jesse thought furiously.

"It's ok," Beca replied, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. "It's nice seeing Benji again."

"Yeah," was all Jesse could come up with.

They both stood awkwardly at the hallway, not entirely sure what to do next. Jesse had his hands full with three pepperoni pizzas. Beca's eyes traveled inwards towards the games room.

"So...you were playing Halo?"


	4. Let's get drunk What can go wrong?

**Chapter 3 Part 2**

 _Continuation of the prompt "Impromptu rap battle but we are both drunk as fuck I hope you know the words to Gangsta Paradise"_

* * *

 **Location : At the ER department, local hospital**

 **Time : Early hours of the morning**

Amy was calmly looking through the notes on the clipboard in her hand. She cleared her throat and pursed her lips, paying close attention to the barely readable scribbles on the page. She reached up towards her blonde beehive and drew out a pen, scribbling more notes on before looking up at the sorry sight in front of her. Three girls were sitting on the uncomfortable hospital chairs, looking slightly worst for wear, all of them staring up at Amy.

Stacie was the first to break. "So..is Aubrey going to be ok?"

Amy didn't seem to be in a hurry to answer her. She made more notes, humming underneath her breath. When she decided the girl had enough suspense, Amy shrugged. "Yeah. She's fine. Just resting at the moment."

No other information was forthcoming. Stacie fell silent, Chloe was nervously twisting her hair while Beca stared at the half empty cup of coffee in her hand.

"So..looks like a good party," the blonde drawled. "Why wasn't I invited?"

"Party? What party?" Chloe replied, frowning. She glanced around at Stacie and Beca, looking confused "Why you think it was a party?"

"Well-" Amy answered, tapping her clipboard with the end of her pen. "Aubrey's not due in a couple of weeks. You know how she like to plan everything. She was supposed to have an elective caesarean. Yet, here you are -" She looked meaningfully at each girl before clocking her sight on the tiny brunette nursing a bandaged hand. "It can only mean one thing… What the hell did you do, Beca effing Mitchell?"

* * *

 **Earlier that evening**

Well yeah, she meant to get drunk. That was the intention when Beca turned up at Jesse's front porch with that bottle of tequila. Shit, the meeting was even more awkward than she thought. Jesse could hardly speak, she felt like she was making all the wrong moves and oh my god, why did she have to run into Jesse's friends? It made everything like a hundred times more awkward.

She needed to get drunk. Fast.

Only alcohol could save this weirdness between them.

Alcohol and Halo.

* * *

 **A couple of shots. You know, just like a pre-game kinda thing**

"Suck it! Hah! Suck it, dude!"

Beca threw the controller onto the table, raised both arms in the air and did a victory wave. She was grinning gleefully at Jesse who had an incredulous look on his face.

"You hustler!" he yelled. "Beca Mitchell, you totally hustle me! You said you didn't know how to play this thing."

They were sitting side by side, the tequila bottle and the remains of one pepperoni pizza between them, a lot more comfortable now. Apparently just a few rounds of Halo was what was needed to wipe that awkwardness between them. At least they could concentrate on the game rather than the weirdness of the situation between them. And a shot or two of the tequila helped a long way.

Beca chortled, picking up the controller and starting the game again. Dude didn't what hit him.

"I like to trip my foes," she said casually, smirking at the look on Jesse's face. "No need to show all the aces up my sleeve. Come on, three out of five?"

Jesse was roundly beaten in the previous round and he knew he was going to be beaten again; but it was really hard to refuse Beca Mitchell when she was grinning like that. He picked up his controller and joined in the game.

"How the hell did you get so good?" Jesse said, eyes on the screen now.

"Misspent youth." Beca replied. "And teaching is stressful. I need to have an outlet. If one more parent tells me how to do my job..." She lobbed a hand grenade and sprayed Jesse with bullets, effectively winning the game.

"Please tell me you were not imagining me as one of your kids' parents," Jesse croaked out, looking at the massacre on the screen.

"Ok," Beca shrugged. "I won't."

Jesse eyed her suspiciously and then shook his head, smiling at her. "We have to even up the odds. How many shots have you had?"

"Dude, you think I can't beat you when I'm drunk?" Beca said. She glanced at Jesse. "Only reason I'm winning is because I'm actually paying attention to the game."

Shit. She knew he was staring at her? Damn!

It was true.

Jesse wasn't that bad but he was just spending an inordinate amount of time looking at Beca instead of playing properly. He didn't really mind being beaten by that tiny brunette. He enjoyed seeing Beca do her victory dance. Because things...jiggled, you know. Well, she caught him. So the only thing he could do was to uncap that bottle of tequila, pour out another measure and passed her one. Jesse grimaced as the shot burned down his throat. He turned to Beca, game controller loosely held in his hand. "Three out of five, you said?"

* * *

 **A third through. Or maybe half a bottle?**

Let it be said that Beca could handle her alcohol.

Tiny as she was, she can drink any guy under the table.

As he watched Beca downed another shot, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and continued playing Halo, Jesse was reminded of that scene in Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones. We won't speak of the heinous crime that was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That movie was..bad. Wait. Star Wars Episode 1 was bad. So was Waterworld.

Where was he?

Oh.

Indiana Jones.

Yeah. Beca reminded him of that firecracker heroine who drank everyone under the table. How could she still shoot straight? Look at how precisely she pick off those enemies? And she was now on a 27 kill streak? Like how? He couldn't even get past this level without being blown off.

Heh heh.

Blown off.

That's a funny word.

"Die, suckaaaaa!" Beca yelled. A few loud explosions later, she tossed the controller down, victorious and belligerently called out. "God, this game is awesome! Bar keep! More shots!"

"You don't have to shout," Jesse complained, straightening up to pour her a drink. "I'm right here."

"Oops! Sorry," Beca giggled. She giggled a little harder when he sloshed the tequila a little. "Jesse, are you drunk?"

"No," Jesse responded immediately. He whipped round so fast he nearly fall of his seat. "Why? Are you?"

"Maybe." Beca shrugged, grinning at him.

"You can't be! You're playing better than ever!" Jesse exclaimed . He tried to pick up Beca's controller, succeeding on the third try and shoved it towards her. "Play another round. You're seriously good."

"Nah. Don't wanna play anymore," Beca said, leaning back onto the sofa, taking the bottle of tequila with her. Gosh, this sofa was like supercomfortable. She reached for the remote to the sound system, switching it over to some random music channel. "Let's just listen to some music and talk. I like talking."

"Ok." Jesse settled himself next to her. Yeah, he could to that. He enjoyed talking to her. She was really easy to talk to. Funny. Sarcastic. And right now, with that grin on her face and the cute way she was cuddling that bottle of tequila, she looked really adorable. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything," came the slightly slurred reply. There was a pause before she spoke up. "Ok, what's your top three favourite movies?"

Beca was expecting a rapid response but Jesse went quiet. She frowned when he didn't answer for a full five minutes. Did he pass out? They didn't drink that much, right? She peered at the bottle she had in her hand. There was more than half left. Was he a lightweight? Beca turned to look at Jesse to find him looking like he was thinking really hard, silently mouthing to himself.

"Dude, top three movies," Beca prompted, breaking his concentration.

"Wait. I'm still thinking," Jesse frowned and Beca wanted to laugh out loud when she him mumbling to himself. "So..hard. How about...no... Yes... wait... What about...this is impossible." Jesse then spoke up loud. "Umm...ok. Which genre?"

"Really?" Beca questioned, looking at him a little flabbergasted. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." Jesse nodded earnestly. "Sci-if. Action. Film Noir. 50s. Rom coms. Slasher films. Christmas films. Easter films. Favourite film by score. Favourite film by director. The list is endless. Take your pick."

"Whoa, dude, you're giving me a headache already," Beca complained. A mischievous smile lit her face as she gave him a wink. "I snooped round your DVD collection just now while you were 'getting the glasses'. You seem to have a massive hard on for John Hughes films. All those 80s teen stuff. Like, what's the deal there?"

"You want me to pick a favourite from that?" Jesse asked. "That's easy. The Breakfast Club. It's a great movie. We should watch it sometime. Let's watch it now."

He was about to get up.

"Dude, no," Beca said, pulling him back into his seat."Umm...you know how you get when you're on a roller coaster?"

"Yes?" Jesse answered warily. He thought they were not going to mention that incident again.

"Yeah. That's me with movies. Exact same reaction," Beca said. "So. Unless you want me to…What?"

"You don't like movies?" Jesse gulped, doing a great impression of a goldfish.

"Eh. Just like you at rollercoasters, dude" Beca shrugged. "Ok, why are you staring at me like that? That's creepy."

Jesse was openly ogling at her now; like she was some sort of alien. He must have noticed that his jaw was literally on the floor when he closed his mouth and casually mumbled. "I'm trying to work something out."

He then squinted his eyes at her and squared his shoulders. "Ok. What else?"

"What else what?" Beca slurred, trying to find her glass. Bah. They had dispensed with the limes and salt ages ago. She didn't need a glass. Beca tipped the bottle to her mouth and took a slug.

"What else is wrong with you?" Jesse clarified as she took a slug. "What other faults and heinous crimes are you hiding, Beca Mitchell? Did you murder someone? Did you do time? All this time, here I was thinking you are perfect and then BAM! You hit me with _I vomit at movies_. Do you have, like a third nipple or something?"

She nearly choked on that tequila and after Jesse absent-mindedly thumped her back, Beca was looking at him aghast. "Dude! You put murder, having a third nipple and not liking movies in the same category?"

Jesse was shaking his head, not answering her question. She didn't like movies? That was just insane. Who didn't like movies? It was always a deal breaker for him if a girl he was interested it had not, at least watched E.T. But in Beca's case, it just made her more intriguing.

Shit.

He must really, really like her.

* * *

 **Halfway. Definitely halfway through that tequila. Or maybe more?**

"You think I should go back with Luke?" Beca asked out of nowhere.

Both of them were slumped back on the sofa, the bottle half empty besides them. _What kind of question was that?_ Jesse frowned. No, she shouldn't go back with Luke. She should stay here with him forever and have his babies. They would have such cute babies.

"Why do you want to go back with Luke?" Jesse replied instead.

"Dunno," Beca mumbled. "The girls like him. He's perfect. Except for that stupid laugh."

"Then just don't make him laugh," Jesse answered. "Avoid comedies and funny things ..and things that make people laugh." He ended the sentence limply. "Umm… or you can wear earplugs? Ear muffs. You can wear ear muffs."

Beca was snorting at that.

"So you think I should try it again with Luke?" Beca said. "You can't think of any other reason I shouldn't?"

"I don't know Luke. It's entirely up to you," Jesse advised. "Seriously, if it is something you can overlook, you should. It's not often you find someone who's perfect. You should not let them go." _Then why the hell am I telling her to go back to her ex-boyfriend?_ _Jesse, you stupid fuck._

"You're really great, you know that," Beca hiccuped. "I mean, the girls are great but they can be so crazy, you know. But you...you are just great." She rolled to her side and looked at him with a drunken smile. "Why it is so easy to talk to you? You are so easy to talk to. I really like talking to you. Will you be my best friend?"

"Yeah. Why not?" Jesse grinned.

Beca let out the most un-Beca like squeal, throwing her arms around his neck.

OK, he was definitely major level drunk. Did he agreed to be friendzoned by the hottest girl alive? He wanted to get into her pants already and he just agreed to be friendzoned. _Jesse, you stupid, drunk fuck._

* * *

 **Who cares how much I've drunk? I suddenly found an unknown talent for dancing and singing. Plus I make great life choices like making this tiny girl angry. And I'm horny.**

How much have they drunk in the last hour? Hey, the bottle was feeling rather light so did that mean they have drunk it all? Where did all these beer cans came from? Jesse was playing with the empty cans when he turned towards Beca, fixing his slightly unfocussed eyes on her.

"I'm really sorry I threw upon you," he said, trying to place a hand on Beca's arm and missing completely. "the other rides are fine by me but roller coasters? Maaann, roller coasters are like, my nemesis."

"Why did you go on it?" Beca asked, turning her head towards him. He was smiling sloppily at her and damn it, why was he was cute even when he's drunk? "If it's that bad…"

"I dunno. Maybe I thought it won't be that bad," Jesse shrugged. "You looked so fearless on it. I mean, how could you laugh at that first drop?"

"Badass Beca. That's what they call me," Beca replied with a smirk.

Jesse looked slightly skeptical. "Really? That's why they call you?"

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

Her slightly prickly tone should have been a warning but at that point in time, Jesse was a little bit too drunk to notice.

"How can you be so badass? You're tiny," he said, putting another nail in his coffin. Jesse reached over to poke the floral ink on her shoulder. "And you've got flowers on your skin."

"Dude, these tattoos are not licked on by kittens," Beca replied.

"But they're so pretty. You're so pretty." Jesse mumbled. "I can see right through you. All that badass Beca Mitchell is just a front. Inside, you are a gooey marshmallow. I bet you're just faking this whole hard as nails, gangsta attitude. I bet you can't even rap."

"Are you testing me?" Beca said, looking dumbfounded.

Jesse had a dopey grin on his face.

"You like dates on the beach, holding hands and walking in the rain."

"Dude."

"You watch Gilmore Girls and write fanfiction."

"What does that even mean?"

"Your favourite singer is Barry Manilow," Jesse said and Beca was speechless. He was smiling a little drunkenly now." Own it, Mitchell. There's no shame in it." He began warbling. " _ _You know I can't smile without you. I can't smile without you. I can't laugh ...__ _"_

Barry Manilow was the last straw. No offense to Barry Mannilow fans but Beca was definitely not one of them. And all the shit about her being so tiny and writing fanfiction?

"Fuck you Swanson! I don't care if you're my new best friend," Beca yelled out, losing it. "No one talk that kind of level shit at me and walk away. Get up!"

"What? Why?" Jesse asked. His hands were on the sofa's arm as he tried to get to his feet. Whoa. Standing up was hard. Why was standing up so hard? Beca was already on her feet, swaying a little unsteadily. She was peering at the remote, clumsy fingers pressing at the buttons. The sound system buzzed through several channels until some hip hop spilled out.

Beca whooped.

"Let's see what you've got, white boy," she crowed. "You talk a lot of shit but I bet your spit game's weak. I challenge you to an impromptu rap battle!"

Who? What?

Jesse's foggy head was still trying to play catch. He couldn't even stand straight, let alone rap along to what was this? Oh crap. He knew the intro. Gangsta Paradise? She wanted to rap battle to Gangsta Paradise. Jesse was silently cursing, his inebriated brain scrambling trying to remember the lyrics. Beca was already spitting out the rhymes, her hands gesturing wildly at him.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

He could not fail now. He already made a huge fool of himself at the fun fair. He would not have any shred of dignity left if he fumbled this. He did not think she would let him off by just sing the hook.

Ok. Ok. He could do this.

And as if by magic, fuelled by the tequila, egged by the need to impress this tiny brunette drunk rapping at him, Jesse opened his mouth and rapped the next verse.

 _I really hate to trip but I gotta lope  
_ _As they croak, I see myself in the pistol smoke foll  
_ _I'm the kind G that little homies want to be like  
_ _On my kness in the night, saying prayers in the streetlight._

Beca's mouth dropped open as he rapped back the verse. The hook played over and buoyed by his success, Jesse continued. Beca was grinning, dancing in time to the music, her hands raised up in the air. She sang the hook out loud. She was now jumping a little wildly and the sight of things _bouncing_ suddenly made Jesse forget things. Like the rhymes to the next verse. But like the hero that he was, Jesse Swanson valiantly surged on. He got this. He was smooth. He improvised. Badly.

"Da fuck was that?" Beca cried out, stopping suddenly

She didn't see where she was landing and like a sack of potatoes, she went down straight into Jesse. Both of them tumbled onto the sofa and like a bad comedy trope, the sofa fell backwards. They found themselves on their backs, their feet waving in the air.

Beca laughed.

She laughed out so loud her feet in the Super Mario socks were shaking. Jesse's bare feet were right next to hers and he couldn't help but joined in. They just couldn't stop. It took them several minutes for the laughter to taper off.

"Gosh, my feet's really hairy," Jesse commented out of nowhere, wiggling his right foot. That sent another peal of hysterical laughter out of them. Beca was wiping her eyes, her chest still shaking from trying to contain her laughs.

"Yeah, your feet's hairy," she agreed. She turned to look at him. "I take it back. Your spit game's pretty good, homeboy."

"Yeah?"

Beca nodded. "Except for the last bit. What the hell, dude? You think you better than Coolio?"

"I forgot the words," Jesse shrugged. "But I still wanted to impress you. Bad move."

She was trying to stifle that laugh but it erupted out of her lips before she could stop it. She leaned in nearer.

"You wanna impress me, huh?" she said a little huskily.

"Yeah," Jesse replied. "Ever since the first time I saw you."

"And you think I'm perfect?" Beca repeated what she said earlier. How she remembered Jesse's drunken verbal diarrhoea just now was nothing short of a miracle.

"Yeah," Jesse replied, smiling sloppily at her, his eyes going all gooey. "I think you are."

Beca edged a little closer, her head just right next to his.

"That's really...sweet," she said before closing the distance between them.

His lips were as soft as she remembered. That day at the funfair when she kissed him under the light of the Ferris Wheel, his lips had been soft and sweet from all that candy floss. He tasted of tequila now but so did she. He moved his head a little closer, opening his mouth slightly and she found herself deepening the kiss. Vaguely, she felt his warm hand on her waist and she pressed her body a little closer.

Maybe it was the tequila talking. Maybe it was all that unresolved sexual tension between them.

But he was much bolder this time round. A low, sexy groan came from his throat as Jesse pulled her firmly against him. Beca felt him rolling a little to the left and she was on top on him. Not that she mind. She broke the kiss, rubbing her nose against his. Then she pushed herself up to look down at him. He was looking at her with something akin to wonder in his eyes.

"Hi." Beca said, smiling.

"H..hey," Jesse stammered back. His hands ran down from her back to her waist.

"You ok there?"

"Hmm. I'm good," Jesse answered, trying to sound casual. Beca smiled and dipped her head down. She was peppering these light, butterfly kisses on his jaw and Jesse gulped. "Never better," he added, sounding a little strained.

She was laughing quietly, her face now in the crook of his neck. He could feel her mouth on his neck and Jesse clamped his eyes tight. She weighed almost nothing on top of him. Her breasts felt soft against his chest, despite the layers of clothes between them and Jesse was sure she could feel how hard he was getting underneath her. That didn't seem to deter her because her fingers were now fumbling with the hem of his tshirt and Jesse cupped her face in his hands and kissed her back.

 _This was getting really interesting_ – Beca thought. - _God, h_ _e'_ _s such a good kisser._ She leaned in to deepen the kiss. Usually stubble bothered her a little but not Jesse's. And the way he was nibbling at her lower lip. It made her all hot and shaky. Beca was vaguely aware of his warm hands sliding up her back, underneath her shirt. How long have they been making out? Well, his tshirt was off. She had tugged impatiently at the tshirt just now and he had removed it quickly before pulling her closer. Now her hands ran down his bare chest, her fingers gliding down those abs she saw only in those hot calendar pics.

Another low groan came from Jesse.

The kind of husky, deep groan that make goose bumps erupted on Beca's arms and pulled at her groin. Jesse rolled her over. Her back was on the cool floor and he pressed closer, grinding into her. It was Beca's turn to moan now.

Because, helloooooooo Mr. September.

* * *

"Becaaaaa!"

At first, Beca thought she was dreaming. She was fast asleep and Chloe was trying to wake her up or she'll be late for work. That would explain why there was the hammering on her bedroom door. And Chloe shouting. Except that didn't sound like Chloe.

That hammering on the door continued and Beca opened her eyes, blinking a little in the half darkness. It took her several moments to note she was not exactly at home. The howl and the hammering outside the door was drilling into her head and Beca gingerly got up, still too fogged up to figure out unimportant stuff such as where was she. The banging on the door went up a notch and Beca quickened her steps as much as she could in her current drunken state.

"Beca, open the door! I know you're inside!"

Shit! Beca recognised the voice too well. It was Aubrey and Beca knew immediately she was in deep trouble. The door was actually shaking.

"Hang on! I'm here," Beca yelled back, trying to catch hold of the knob. Crap, that thing was slippery. At the fourth try she managed to grab hold of it and turned it open. She could hear Aubrey hissing outside and what sounded like Chloe and Stacie trying to placate her. Beca threw open the door to find Aubrey, all nine months pregnant quivering with righteous outrage. Both Chloe and Stacie were looking slightly sheepish, standing on the either side the blonde woman.

"H..hey Aubrey," Beca said, giving her friends a sloppy smile.

"They told me I found you here!" Aubrey scolded immediately, stepping into the house without being invited. She took a cursory, almost disparaging look round. "What the hell are you doing here, Beca Mitchell?"

"I'm visiting a friend," Beca tried to reason, not knowing that she was actually now slurring quite badly. "My new best friend, Jesse Swanson. We were just talking. What are _you_ doing here, Aubrey?"

Chloe had clapped her hand over her mouth and croaked out,"I thought I'm your best friend!"

"Not now, Chloe," Aubrey shook her head at the stricken looking Chloe. She fixed her steely gaze on Beca. "I thought you were acting strange during dinner so I called Chloe. She said you came here and wanted to get, in their words, 'blind level drunk' with this... this man. This guy you hardly knew! You went on one disastrous date with him and here you are. Alone. In his house. Drunk. Do you know how dangerous this is?"

"Aubrey, chill out. Nothing happened."

"Nothing huh? " Aubrey scoffed. Her eyes had jumped from Beca to the space behind her. Beca noticed Chloe and Stacie were also staring just behind her shoulder, their mouths hanging open. Beca turned round slowly because anything faster than snail pace was going to make her hurl. And there was Jesse walking towards them, with his bare chest and feet, his jeans unzipped and slung low.

"What's going on?" he mumbled, rubbing one side of his face and running a hand through his mussed up hair. Mussed up, messy, _I just had sex_ hair.

Beca's jaw dropped and she dropped her gaze down to her own chest.

She should be wearing a plaid shirt.

Except she wasn't?

She was standing at Jesse's hallway topless, in front of a belligerent Aubrey, with Jesse coming up behind her and she was saying nothing had happened yet both of them looked guilty as fuck. Beca immediately crossed her arms in front of her chest. She still got her bra on. Yes. That should count for something.

"Of all the irresponsible things you could do, Beca!" Aubrey was hollering now. "We talk about this before. We are Bella women! We need to make good choices -"

"Bree, we're no longer in college," Beca argued back. "Just drop that Bella thing, would you?"

"Drop it? DROP IT?" Aubrey's voice went up several notches. "How dare you tell me to drop it? Being a Bella is a lifetime commitment! If you can't deal with it, hand back the scarf! And the pitch pipe. I know you stole one and hide it in your -"

"For fuck sake, Aubrey -"

"Don't you swear at me! I'm only trying to protect you," Aubrey interrupted her. The blonde advanced forward, her hand curling around Beca's forearm. "Did you use a condom? For God's sake, did you use a condom, Beca Mitchell?"

"Bree, stop -" Beca was trying to pull her arm away but hell, that skinny blonde has a death grip. Must be those man hands.

"Do you know whether he's clean? Maybe he had STDs," Aubrey barged on. "I will NOT have another one of my Bellas riddled with gonorrhoea."

"Stacie didn't have gonorrhoea!" Beca hollered back.

"I didn't have gonorrhoea," Stacie nodded solemnly. "It was something else."

"You!" Aubrey spoke to Jesse. "Get dressed. We are going to the hospital."

"Ma'am. Just for the record, I'm clean. We had to have tests for my line of work." Beca vaguely heard Jesse said. She was still attempting to get out of Aubrey's grip, leaning backwards with all her weight to break that grip

"And I can assure you, nothing happened." Jesse mumbled.

Beca stopped for a moment. Nothing happened? She had that hot body on top of her and nothing happened? What the hell was wrong with him? What the hell was wrong with her?

"I don't believe you! Everyone's getting tested!" Aubrey answered, clearly getting hysterical now. Her hormones must be making her wacky at the moment. "If you could take advantage of a drunk girl -"

Aubrey stopped in mid sentence, her face frozen in shock.

Months later, Beca clearly remembered the way Aubrey's mouth formed a perfect frozen 'O' and how Beca stared at her face, wondering whether someone pressed a Pause button somewhere. Then she felt water splashing on her bare feet. Beca's eyes flicked downwards. Where did the water came from? Then Chloe was screeching "Oh my god, Aubrey! Your water's broken!"

Then Aubrey let go of Beca's arm.

It was so sudden.

One moment, she was in Aubrey's death grip, and the next, she was free. Beca staggered back, her arms flinging wildly in the air. Beca felt her hand made contact. And the she heard a loud, sickening crunch and a painful sort of 'oof' coming from behind her.

She didn't need to look back to know what she did.

She didn't need to turn her head and look at Jesse who was standing behind her.

Because Stacie was already yelling out in disbelief.

"What the fuck, Beca? You've broke his nose!"


	5. So we meet again

**AN :** _Happy belated birthday, Jamie! Sorry it's so late. Also dedicated to fivefoottwo who is an awesome teacher_

* * *

 **Chapter Four**

As usual that morning, Jesse drew up to the front of Benji's place to pick him up. They had the same shift most of the time and it made sense to carpool. Jesse frowned when Benji was not waiting outside. Usually, he could spot his curly haired friend standing by the post box some distance away, bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet.

Jesse parked the car and waited. A text to Benji followed, saying he was waiting and when that was not answered, Jesse got out of his car and walked up to the house. A few urgent knocks later, he could hear someone shuffling towards the door. It creaked open and Benji was on the other side, half dressed and looking the worse for wear.

"Sorry, bro -" Benji mumbled thickly, pulling his suspenders on. He weakly tried to shrug on his jacket, missing his right sleeve on the first try. "I was just in the...in the -"

A huge sneeze followed. Jesse nearly jumped out of the way.

"Benji, get back to bed. You're sick."

"No, I'm fine," Benji sniffed. His eyes were streaming and he wiping them when another huge sneeze blasted out of him. This time Jesse jumped well clear.

"Dude, you're at death's door. Just go to bed," Jesse insisted. Benji was looking quite pale now and sniffling miserably at the door step. "I'll tell Skipper you're not well."

"But the kids -" Benji said lamely.

"There's a school visit today?" Jesse questioned. "All the more for you to stay home, bud. I'll take over the tour."

It was not usual for their station to get school visits from time to time. They had a programme for this sort of thing. Usually Benji and Bumper led the tours but all the senior firefighters pitched in from time to time.

"Are you sure? " Benji mumbled thickly. He sneezed again and wiped the snot with his sleeve. "It's Richmond South Elemen -"

"Yeah. Don't worry. It's going to be fine."

It was not until later when Jesse was shouting at guys to clear some of their more 'colourful' posters off the walls before the school was due to arrive that Benji's warning kicked it. Jesse glanced down at the clipboard he was holding. All the information on the visiting school was there.

Richmond South Elementary.

Wait, isn't that -

* * *

"Nooooo, I don't want to go to school!"

Chloe gazed at the stubborn bundle underneath the duvet and sighed loudly.

"Beca, you have to go," the redhead said exasperated now. "You're the teacher."

There was silence and then Chloe heard a groan similar to that of a dying animal. Beca's messy nest of hair popped up from the top end of the duvet and the tiny brunette had a rebellious look on her face.

"Can't you ask Tim to take over?" she moaned. "I helped him when he was trapped in the supplies closet. Nearly sprained my wrist prying that door open. He owes me."

"Tim is on sabbatical. You know that. The kids nearly drove him nuts," Chloe answered. "Besides, you did all the work with the kids on fire safety. You should go."

"Why do we have to go to the fire station?"

"It's a fire awareness programme. Of course we have to go to a fire station."

"Yeah. But why that fire station?"

Chloe had about enough now. If Beca didn't get moving soon, they would both be late. She jerked away the duvet the brunette was clutching at. There was no way she was going to let Beca disappear underneath the duvet again.

"Is that what this is all about?" Chloe said "You're worried you might bump into Jesse?"

Beca scowled at her friend as she sat up and she and pulled her haystack hair into a messy bun.

"Dude, last time I met that guy I broke his nose," Beca replied. "And Aubrey basically drowned his hallway with amniotic fluid. The one before I made him sick riding a rollercoaster. I am obviously bad luck. The whole fire station might burst into flames if I go."

"Stop being so dramatic," Chloe answered back.

"We can't be in the same room. I might break his arm or something."

"Oh Beca," Chloe sighed frustratedly. "You won't break his arm and for the record, It was not such a bad nose break. We got him to the hospital, didn't we? And the doctor reset it back."

"Ugghhh no, Chloe," Beca shuddered at the thought.

Yeah, that had been quite a night. Between Aubrey's waters breaking right there, Beca falling backwards, breaking Jesse's nose and hurting her hand in the process, it was definitely not one of those quiet nights. Jesse, being the trained EMT he was, tried to shrug off that nose break and wanted to attend to Aubrey who was having a panic attack. She just got more hysterical seeing all that blood on his face.

In all the confusion, Stacie took charge, piled everyone in the car and drove to A&E. Beca was jostled in the back seat between Jesse on one side, whose face and shirt were covered in blood and Aubrey who was having contractions and holding on to her bad hand. Beca alternated from saying countless sorry to Jesse and trying not to scream when man-hands Aubrey squeezed her hurt hand too hard.

They arrived at A&E and were split up. Her hand was seen too. They had been anxious about Aubrey until Amy, who was on duty, confirmed she was ok. Just when Beca thought everything had calmed down and she could check up on Jesse, Aubrey's tiny terror decided that was the perfect time to arrive in the world. Her husband couldn't make it in time and of all things, Aubrey had bellowed for Beca to come into surgery and help her go through pushing this baby out of her vag because she was so frightened, god damn it.

Being Aubrey's birth partner was perhaps the weirdest thing ever. It was also strangely touching. By the time, baby and mummy were safe and well, and Aubrey's husband arrived to take over, Beca tried to locate Jesse, only to find he had already left. She didn't even dare to text him afterwards. It was just awkward.

"Come on, Bec -" Chloe tried to cajole her. "They got all this great fire safety programme. Benji told me they have stickers and books for the kids. They even have little plastic firefighter helmets. How cute will that be?"

"But Jesse -"

"You won't see him, I promise," Chloe continued. "I've told you. I've checked countless times with Benji. He's going to run the tour with this guy called Bumper."

"But -"

"Beca Anne Mitchell," Chloe yelled, already at the end of her tether. "No more buts! We are running late already Get dressed. You're coming!"

Beca was gobsmacked at Chloe yelling at her. The redhead was almost puce in the face and she looked dangerous at the moment. Chloe was always the easygoing one so it was pretty scary when she loses it once in a while.

"Fifteen minutes. Get your ass outta there," Chloe warned. She spun on her heels and walked to the door. "Don't even dare call in sick," Chloe said before leaving the room. "I'll shop you to Principal Geller and that's a promise. You are going to the fire station."

Beca waited until Chloe was out of earshot before she yelled.

"There better be a fireman's helmet for me!"

* * *

Shit.

Why didn't it register when Benji said it just now?

Jesse mentally kicked himself many times over when it finally dropped who would be visiting the station today. He had checked the name at least three times and no matter how many times he rubbed his eyes, Jesse could still see under contact name on the info sheet "Miss Chloe Beale. Miss Beca Mitchell."

She was going to be here?

Here, here?

In this same station?

OH MY GOD. She's going to be here.

The guys at the station. They are going to know.

At this point Jesse was internally freaking out. Already the guys did not let him live down the bad date and the Vine. Let alone the latest disaster of his broken nose. Benji was actually speechless in shock when he found out and for days, Donald had stared and shook his head every time he laid eyes on Jesse. He hated to think what they would do knowing Beca would be here.

For a rare, crazy moment, Jesse thought maybe, just maybe, no one would notice. He just act cool, get the tour over with and everything is going to be ok. Yeah, it would totally be.

Until Jesse saw Bunper flipping through the clipboard with barely concealed grin on his face.

* * *

The bus drew up at the fire station and Beca had to gulp down a few times to calm her nerves. This was extremely stupid. She was a teacher. She had singlehandedly quelled a riot once in the cafeteria when they ran out of Jello and pried Tim out of the supplies cupboard. Why should she be nervous? Just because she might bump into Jesse Swanson? What was the likelihood of that happening anyway ?

Yeah, it was his station but he could be on a different shift or on call. And like Chloe said, it would be Benji and this guy called Bumper who would be running the tour. They must have special areas for school tours, right? Away from the equipment and the machines so the chances of bumping into him was probably nil. Like less than nil.

"Beca, a little help?"

Chloe's voice snapped her back to the present and for the next ten minutes, Beca was too occupied with making sure the kids alighted the bus and were corralled into some semblance of order. Chloe had gone ahead while she held up the rear and they were met by a short, broad set guy with a somewhat pasty complexion and sandy brown hair.

"Morning everyone. I'm Firefighter Allen but you may call me Bumper," the guy was saying cheerily. Beca prompted the kids to chorus Good morning back. Bumper beamed a little at the kids before continuing his welcome speech.

Beca was paying attention when she felt her hand being tugged. It was Casey, the shy little boy who was a whisperer. Beca knelt down to check what Casey needed and she was straightening up when she heard Bumper saying, "...and to help me today, we have Firefighter Swanson. Kids, say hello to Jesse."

* * *

Jesse was doing the tour?

But Chloe said -

Ah fuck.

It didn't matter what Chloe said. Because it was definitely Jesse Swanson standing in front next to Bumper Allen, smiling down at the kids. It couldn't be anyone else. Same dark hair, same smile, same dimples, same freaking hot body in that fireman outfit. It was the first time she had seen him in his uniform and Beca did not know why her face felt hot all of a sudden.

This entire thing was so embarrassing.

When she heard his name, Beca shot up so fast just she nearly fell over the kids. It took clutching at Chloe and the heads of couple of the taller kids to keep her from falling facedown on the asphalt. She had mumbled her sorries; only too aware that the firefighters in front were looking. God, just make a sinkhole appear and swallow her already.

"Right, we are going to have our safety briefing first before we look around the fire station," Bumper was saying to the kids. "Come along this way now."

The kids trooped after Bumper and Jesse while Chloe and Beca trailed at the rear. Beca took that opportunity to jerk Chloe's arm and whisper yelled at her. "You said Benji's doing this?!"

Chloe just hummed, looking equally confused.

"I dunno, Bec. That's what Benji told me. Oh no, maybe there's something wrong with Benji?" Chloe swiftly took out her phone and began texting, ignoring the antsy Beca by her side. A few pings later, Chloe whispered back. "He's sick. Oh poor babe."

She walked a few feet away and went back to texting Benji. Beca knew she lost Chloe there and then. The redhead was now too occupied with sick Benji now and it was up to Beca to deal with having Jesse Swanson in close proximity for the next few hours.

She'll just pretend not to know him.

Yes. That's it. That's what she's going to do. It's easy right? She's good at ignoring people. Well, maybe not totally ignore him. She can't quite pretend he doesn't exist throughout the whole tour. That would be rude and a little strange. She would be professional. Yes, that 's the word. Professional. Profess -

Beca lost her train of thought because Jesse had walked over and was now standing in front of her. He looked slightly uneasy, probably unsure what to say and for some weird reason, Beca felt two hot spots on her cheeks. She was also aware that Chloe was openly ogling both of them. She was probably taking notes to tell the girls later.

"Hi..umm...welcome to the 43rd Fire Station -" she heard Jesse saying.

"Beca Mitchell. Pleased to meet you," Beca quickly interrupted, thrusting her hand forward. "You can call me Miss Mitchell."

Jesse looked like someone clubbed him round the head but he recovered and shook Beca's hand. She gripped it a little hard and Jesse couldn't help that wince showing on his face. After a quick shake, she released his hand and began to flip through the folder she was carrying. Jesse was trying not to shake his hand free from the pins and needles caused by her death grip.

"The kids have been working on fire safety based on the Learn Not to Burn lesson plan," Beca bustled on, keeping her eyes on the papers in her hands. " - they're familiar with the whole stay away from hot things and who to call in an emergency. The kids had a fire drill at school but we still have not practice the stop, drop and roll -"

"Ok."

"- so if you could reinforce these lessons and show them the fire trucks," Beca rushed through, hardly taking a breath. "- and maybe show me your hose..I mean, them...show them your hose. Then we'll be done and out of your hair in no time."

She thrust the whole folder into Jesse's hands, still not meeting his eyes. There. Except for that Freudian slip, she was professional. This was a professional meeting. She had made the boundaries clear. Beca hurriedly looked away, pretending to pay attention to the other firefighter (Bumper, was it?) who was going through a safety briefing with the kids but she was very conscious of Jesse standing next to her, slowly looking through the papers she had unceremoniously dumped on him.

"Miss Mitchell?"

Beca debated on whether she should answer. She couldn't quite ignore him. That would be odd. And he did called her Miss Mitchell, which meant he got the memo. This interaction was strictly professional. Beca turned her head to find Jesse Swanson, staring down at her with those limpid brown eyes, a serious expression etched his face. Damn, how was it possible he looked doubly hot now?

"These are great lesson plans. Thank you," he said solemnly, returning back her folder.."Our programme can fit around those easily; and we could do a little more than show them the fire trucks."

"That..that would be good," Beca stuttered.

"Great. Now if you would excuse me..." he said, noting that Bumper had finished the safety briefing and was pointedly staring at him. Jesse turned away from Beca and fixed his best smile on before speaking to the kids. "Ok, everyone. Let's start with the kitchen!"

* * *

"Now just remember, the person on the phone will help you, ok?" Jesse saying now. He was sitting down amongst the kids who were on cross legs on the floor. "But they need know a few things before they can help. Who can tell me what we need to tell 911?"

A few hands shot up.

Jesse picked one and little Casey said hesitantly, "Our address?"

"Good job, champ! You get a sticker," Jesse beamed at him. Casey looked thrilled as Jesse pressed a fire truck sticker onto his tshirt. "Anyone else?"

More hands shot up and the kids were happily shouting out answers.

The kids were grinning. Jesse was grinning. It was a little infectious.

Try as she might, Beca couldn't quite bit back her smile. She had been impressed with the tour so far. As promised, it was kept to the lesson plans and very professional. They played a little game of "Toy or not?" to start with. Jesse drew small objects including toy cars and matches out of a bag and the kids had to shout "Toy!" Or "Not!" A walk round the station kitchen followed where Jesse was pointing out things that could be hot and what should be avoided. Another noisy session of "Hot" or "Not" ensued and now Jesse was going through how to call emergency services.

"How you doing there, Bec? Are you pregnant yet?"

Beca whirled round so fast she nearly knocked into Chloe who was standing next to her. The redhead had her deadpan teacher look expression on her face like she didn't breathe a word but Beca knew what she heard. She had not gone deaf. She just glared at Chloe, turning back and refusing to rise to the bait.

"Pregggnaaaant," the redhead whispered-sang out of the corner of her mouth, just loud enough for Beca to hear

"Shut up. This is all your fault," Beca whispered back. "You and Benji."

"It's not Benji's fault he's ill," Chloe said. "Maybe this is all destiny, y'know. You're meant to be together."

"Don't be stupid."

"He's hot. He's really good with kids. And you want his babies..." Chloe sang in sotto voce.

Beca gave her friend a well aimed kick. Chloe's yelp of pain made Jesse stop in mid sentence and look up but the two teachers at the back stared back at him blankly like nothing had happened.

"Okaaaayyy..." Jesse continued, dragging his eyes away.

Damn it, why must his eyes automatically look for her at every single opportunity? Chloe and Bumper were already smirking knowingly at him and he was sure Beca would have noticed. He really need to stop ogling her.

Just now had been a bit awkward - what with her not quite meeting his eye and pretending they didn't really know each other. Ok, it was a little bit weird but seeing Beca all 'teachered' up in a stern looking dress, all brisk and professional and insisting he called her Miss Mitchell was kinda turning him on a little. Although saying that, one of the kids were in tears, a little frightened of the equipment and Beca had spent some time, speaking sweetly and calming the poor kid down. That had been a turn on too.

"Looks like we are all clear with what is an emergency," Jesse said, rousing himself from his dirty thoughts." Any questions, kids?"

A small hand went up and Jesse smiled at the little girl with blonde pigtails.

"Hey, Bethany isn't it?" Jesse asked.

The girl nodded with all the seriousness of a six year old.

"You had a question?"

The little girl slowly tucked her hand back onto her lap and blinked a couple of times. "What about if you're too scared to call 911?"

"If it is a real emergency, don't be scared to call," Jesse said reassuringly. "They will be happy to help...Oh, what's the matter, sweetheart?" He broke off seeing Bethany's face screwed up in mild distress.

"Toby fell off the monkey bars once in the playground and broke his arm," Bethany said. "He was crying and I was too scared to call for help."

"That is definitely an emergency. I bet it was really scary."

"It was but Miss Beca helped." Bethany swivelled round and pointed at Beca.

"Yeah? Miss Beca helped?" Jesse smiled, staring at Beca again. He found her looking a little flushed at suddenly being at the centre of attention. He thought it was adorable. Bumper cleared his throat loudly and Jesse snapped back into the room. Ok, focus, Jesse, FOCUS!

"Right!" Jesse spoke up, getting up to his feet. "Who wants to see the fireman pole?"

* * *

Ok, maybe this was not such a good idea.

Beca peered downwards. Both her and Amy were on the second floor, on top of this stupid pole and the kids and Bumper were below, grinning up at her through the hole nine floor. In the next few minutes, she would be gripping this brass pole with her hands and legs and trying to slide down the length in the most dignified way she could muster. She would be lying if her knees wasn't shaking.

Darn those kids!

When Jesse showed them the fireman pole, they were all beyond excited and cries of "Please! Please! Can we have a go? Please!" rose up almost immediately. Of course the fire station would not allow fifteen excitable kids to do that. It was a big no no. Jesse had tried to deflect the clamour with the excuse "Sorry, guys. You have to be much, much bigger." Only to be met with a sassy "Miss Chloe's bigger than us. Miss Beca too!" And now here was Beca at the top, trying to control her nerves.

Ok. She can totally do this. She rode death defying roller coasters, for goodness sake. This would be only a piece of cake.

"Not quite what you had in mind, eh?" Chloe smirked. "- you know, when he said who want to see my fireman pole -"

Yeah. Chloe could shut up at this point. She was not helping. Beca was already super aware that Jesse will be teaching her how to do this and for all that was good and holy, Beca was praying she would not make a total fool out of herself. After making a few checks, Jesse walked up to them and stood behind Beca. Thankfully, Chloe did shut up. She didn't wipe that stupid grin off her face though.

"Ok, Miss Mitchell, are you ready?"

Beca nodded, not looking at him.

"You need to make sure there's nothing that could obstruct your way," Jesse instructed, checking the kids were safely away from the landing zone. He ran his eyes briefly over Beca.

"Umm.. And you may want to tuck your dress..in between your..erm..legs," Jesse continued, awkwardly gesturing at her dress. "We don't want give Bumper below a free show!"

He meant that as a joke. Things felt awkward and tense somehow and he cracked a joke. But as soon as the words left his mouth, Jesse realised how lame it sounded. He chuckled nervously and that chuckle died when Beca stared daggers at him.

"Right. Ok," Jesse gulped down uneasily. "Whenever you're ready.'

Beca tucked her dress in properly and gingerly reached out for the pole. For the umpteenth time, she wished she had thought to wear trousers that day. She should know her kids would put her up to all this.

"Just give a little jump, wrap your legs round -" Jesse said. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "- and slide."

Damn the pole was freaking cold!

Beca slid down, nearly losing her footing on landing. Bumper steadied her and the kids broke into big toothy grins and applause. She was grinning back. Bumper was pulling her to one side because it was Chloe's kids' hands nearly fell off from all the clapping. Beca turned round just in time to see Jesse sliding down the pole with one hand.

It was the way his arm looked.

And his biceps.

And his chest in that tight, grey regulation tshirt.

She didn't know she was staring until he landed lightly on his feet, just inches from her. He caught her looking.

"Errmm...good slide," Beca quickly spoke up to cover up her embarrassment.

"Yeah? Yours too," Jesse responded, smiling down at her.

* * *

Her kids are monsters. Total and utter monsters.

Why did she let them do this? Already that pole slide was embarrassing; now she had to stand here on the third floor of this fake constructed building, pretending to be trapped and have one of the firefighters rescue her? They had a tour of the yard and the training zone just now. Bumper asked whether they want to see the engine ladder in action and of course, of course, the effing kids shouted "Yessss!" One Beca was standing mutinously after being coerced by her kids and Chloe. Like she said, her kids were monsters.

"Beca, wave your hands about and yell help." Chloe was shouting up at her. "Make it look realistic!"

Beca just scowled down at the redhead. What? Is Chloe Martin Scorsese all of the sudden? This was a freaking demo, not a movie set. Beca noted Chloe refused to play the 'victim', citing health and safety but was now happily directing her on what to do.

"Help," she deadpanned, half heartedly.

"Come on, Beca. You can do better than that!" Chloe cheered. "Do it for the kids."

Her kids were clapping and cheering her on and damn it, why did she love them so much? Beca yelled help a little more convincingly this time but she stopped at waving her arms about like a lunatic. From where she was standing, she could see Bumper explaining more about the rescue. The ladder was being positioned and oh god, of course it had to be Jesse Swanson climbing up the ladder.

He stopped a few rungs short and gazed up at her. Beca didn't quite know where to look and since she couldn't think of anything else to do, she forced herself to smile. It came out more like grimace.

"Hi," Jesse croaked, equally nervous. "Ready to be rescued?"

Beca swallowed hard. "Umm..yeah sure. What do you want me to do?"

She was expecting Jesse to haul her over the shoulder and slid down the ladder. She saw them doing that in the movies. That's what firemen do, right? Well, apparently not because Jesse was scratching his chin like he was thinking how best to do this.

"Ok, here's the thing," he said. "The normal rescue method I need to position you across the ladder and slide you down. Your shoulder will be on my left arm and I need to put my right arm between your legs -"

"Yeah. No to that," Beca quickly answered.

"Yeah, thought so," Jesse nodded. "Ok. If you can sit on the ledge first and swing your legs out. Put your hands on my shoulders."

Beca did as she was instructed, inching forward on the ledge and steadying herself by clutching onto his shoulders. Jesse gently pulled her down, positioning her body between the ladder and him. His hands were on the ladder, his arms under hers. Beca bit her lip wishing this would end quickly. The last time they had been this close she was on top of him, making out. She was sure her face was flaming right now. It couldn't get any more awkward than this, right?

No, she was wrong,

"Ok, we're going down," Jesse warned. He shifted and Beca found her legs parting and she was basically resting on his knee. He stepped down one rung and another, sliding her down. She was bumping down the ladder from one knee to another.

"Dude, your knee's in my crotch," Beca hissed.

"Umm..yeah, that's the safest way to do this."

"What the hell -" Beca muttered, trying to preserve some of her dignity but she must have moved a little too violently because the ladder started to shake. Beca immediately threw her arms round Jesse, pressing herself forward into him and screwing her eyes shut.

"Whoa! Don't do that!" Jesse hissed back, immediately coming to a stop. "You nearly threw us both off."

"Go back up!" Beca cried. "I get down by myself."

"Beca, are you scared?" Jesse asked in surprise.

"No," Beca muttered unconvincingly. "And it's Miss Mitchell to you!"

"Ok...hang on a sec," Jesse replied.

He glanced down to where Bumper was holding the ladder steady. Bumper had an barely disguised look of amusement on his face. Chloe and all the kids were staring up, open mouthed.

"Right, I'm going to get you down as quick as possible, ok?" Jesse spoke up. He felt Beca nodding in the curve of his neck. "This is not strictly procedural but can you wrap your legs round my waist? I'll carry you down that way."

 _She was not going to go for that_ \- Jesse thought. _We are going to be stuck here on the ladder with her arms round me all day. And they will have to rescue us with a cherry picker._

But then Jesse felt Beca moving and he steadied himself as she did exactly as he asked. Once he was sure she was secure, Jesse started to step down the ladder. This was definitely not in the rescue manual but at this point, Jesse couldn't care less. She weighed almost nothing. She smelled really nice. Also there was something about the desperate way she was clutching at him which was really, really nice.

They were about two thirds down when Beca muttered into his neck. "Hurry up."

"Nearly there," Jesse assured her. He couldn't help smirking a little. "I can't believe you're scared. Dude, you rode roller coasters."

"Shut up!" Beca mumbled further. "Roller coasters I can handle. Flimsy ladders are another thing."

"Ok."

"And stop smiling!"

This was next level embarrassing. Why did she said yes to this just now? Stupid ladders. Stupid fire awareness programme. Stupid hot fireman with hot bodies. Stupid muscles on his shoulders and arms. She could practically feel every muscle ripple as Jesse moved down the ladder. And can the kids stop making so much noise? He was just doing his job. They shouldn't cheered him on so much.

"Miss Mitchell?" She heard Jesse saying. "We're done. You can let go now."

Beca cracked one eye open and yes, they were indeed off the ladder and firmly on the ground. Hallelujah, they were on terra firma. The kids were clapping and cheering like the sweet lunatics they were. Chloe was grinning. Bumper was grinning. And she was still climbing Jesse Swanson like a monkey.

Shit.

Beca swiftly jumped off and would have fallen backwards if Jesse had not steadied her. Luckily, Bumper was saying something else about ladder rescue and the kids' attention were on him and away from Beca and Jesse.

"You ok?" Jesse breathed, holding on to her waist.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Beca answered. This time her tone had less bite than before. He looked genuinely concerned she couldn't help smiling back a little shyly. "Sorry I freaked out just now."

"No problem. Part of the job," Jesse swiftly replied. "Sorry, I should have briefed you more about the ladder rescue just now. I hope it wasn't too awkward for you."

"Dude, this is a lot awkward -" Beca grimaced. "- mainly because I'm a tool. Sorry I made it so weird. I was expecting Benji to run this and then you turned up. We don't have a good track record being in the same place without an accident. Ermm...You don't have to call me Miss Mitchell - "

"Yeah?" Jesse teased, smiling down at her. "We do know each other now?"

Beca rolled her eyes, a cheeky retort at the tip of her tongue.

"Now who wants to sit on a fire truck?" Bumper said out loud. The kids' cheers were ear splitting and drowned whatever Beca was about to say.

* * *

"Aren't you going to say thank you?"

They were at the end of the tour. The kids had a field day sitting inside the cab of the fire truck, plastic helmet on their heads posing for photos. It was so adorable Bec couldn't help snapping as many photos as she could. Jesse was doing the closing round up when Chloe nudged Beca in the ribs.

"What?" Beca frowned.

"Well? Aren't you?" Chloe nagged. "A personal thank you. To firefighter Swanson over there, who rescued you from the top of he building."

"You're ridiculous. The kids can thank them."

"Of course they should," Chloe agreed. "But I think Firefighter Swanson would really like a personal one from you."

"Shut up, Chlo." Beca answered, glancing at the time. "Bus should be here by now. We need to get going."

The next few minutes were taken up with finishing up everything and thanking the firemen for their time. They were busy corralling the kids out of the starin and onto the waiting bus. There was no time for personal thanks. She had to make sure they didn't leave any kids behind hiding in the firetruck. The kids were slowly getting on the bus when Beca heard her name being called. She swung round to find Jesse jogging up to them.

"Looks like Firefighter Swanson has something to say," Chloe chimed from the front of the queue. "Why don't you check what he wants? I'm ok wi the kids here."

Beca was about to protest when Chloe stared pointedly at her. She practically pushed Beca forward as she chivvied the kids up the bus.

"Hey, did we forgot something?" Beca frowned as Jesse ran up alongside.

"Yes," Jesse spoke up, not even winded from the jog. He raised his hand to show a yellow plastic helmet. "Chloe mentioned you'd like one. So -"

"Chloe can be a dick sometimes," Beca sighed. She smiled up at him and took the offered helmet. "Thank you. Not only for this but for the whole thing. The kids really enjoyed themselves."

"They're great," Jesse said, glancing up at the bus. Some of the kids had their faces pressed against the window, watching them. "It was really nice to see them. It's really nice to see you."

Beca nodded. "Nice to see you too," she mumbled, slightly embarrassed now. "Umm... The nose break. It healed nicely."

His hand flew automatically to his nose. "It wasn't too bad actually. It was ok in a week," Jesse replied. "Ermm...how's Aubrey? She ok? And the baby?"

"They're both fine. Errol's a cute three month baby, now."

"Yeah. It's been three months," Jesse echoed. His hand rubbed the back of his neck, which Beca remembered he only did when he was nervous. "So - is it ok if I text you once a while?"

"Yeah," Beca smiled. "Why not? I'll like that."

"Are you back together with Luke?" Jesse asked. "I mean..you were thinking about it -"

"No, dude." Beca shook her head. "That laugh is still a stumbling block."

Jesse chuckled softly.

"That's..ermm..that's good to know," he said. "Hey, I don't know whether this is out of the left field but do you want -"

"Yo, Jess!"

Both Beca and Jesse jumped at the sound of a female voice calling his name. Beca turned round at the sound of a car drawing to a stop beside them. A blonde woman with her hair in a ponytail was in the driver seat. A very attractive blonde woman who was wearing a tight fitting grey regulation firefighter top.

"Hey Jess, I'm just clocking off now," the blondie said to Jesse. She leant out of the window and grinned at Beca, her white teeth sparkling in the sun. "Hi, I'm Sara."

Jesse seemed to remember his manners and hastily did the introductions "Beca, this is Sara. She transferred here about six week backs from 21st," he mumbled hurriedly. "Sara, this is Beca. She's here with Richmond Elementary."

"School visit huh?" Sara spoke up, looking at Beca.

"Yes. Firefighter Allen and Swanson here did a great job," Beca replied, glancing at Jesse.

"Cool. We always like it when the kids come and visit, don't we, Jesse?" the blondie replied. Beca frowned a little at the look on Jesse's face He had a really weird expression on. Like a deer caught in headlights.

"it's nice to meet you, Beca. You know, your name sound familiar," Sara spoke up. She thought about it for al to two seconds before swivelling her attention back to Jesse.

"So I see you later tonight?" Sara said. "You're picking me up at eight, right?"

#ihateyousomuchrightnow


	6. Why are you here?

**Chapter Five**

Errol must be the cutest baby ever.

Beca couldn't stop grinning at the six month old baby, who was placidly sitting on her lap. He was just too adorable. If she wasn't present at his birth, Beca would have serious doubts that Errol could be Aubrey's. He was far too chilled. At the moment, he was trying to cram his whole fist in his mouth and Beca had to stop herself from repeatedly squashing the fat baby.

It was the usual girls' night and they had chose to hang out at Aubrey's. There was plenty of space and food and booze. Aubrey never said it but the girls also knew that she was grateful whenever they came over. She was grateful for the extra pair of hands and although Aubrey did have to cover the kids ears once in a while when the talk become risqué, it was still a small price to pay for some adult conversation.

"Aww let me hold him now," Chloe cooed, holding her hands out towards the baby.

Beca just gave her the death stare. "No."

"Beca, give someone else a turn," Aubrey spoke up, coming into the room. Her older son was feeling rather clingy lately with the arrival of the new baby and was hanging on to Aubrey like a limpet. It was actually rather funny to see Aubrey limping around around with a three year old strapped to right leg.

"Dylan honey, you have to let mommy sit," Aubrey said sweetly through gritted teeth. She tried prying her older son loose off her but it didn't work. Aubrey just sighed in defeat and sat down on the sofa. It took several tries from Stacie before she could coaxed Dylan off his mummy's leg and play with some cars.

"Guys, never have kids," Aubrey muttered inaudibly from behind the wine glass Stacie sympathetically passed to her.

"Don't intend to. This hunter won't pop out puppies anytime soon," Stacie declared after gulping down her wine. She suddenly grinned and nodded towards Beca who was cooing at Errol and ignoring Chloe's repeated requests to hand the baby over. "But I'm not sure about Beca though."

"Oh?" Aubrey replied, perking up a little. "Is Beca feeling broody? This is interesting."

"I heard you," Beca spoke up from her side of the room, eyes still on Errol. "And no, I'm not."

"Admit it," Stacie goaded. "You do want one."

"That's crazy talk," Beca replied, frowning at Stacie. She dropped the frown once she turned back to coo at Errol again. "We're just going to ignore that crazy lady, aren't we, Errol? She had too much to drink."

"Luke doesn't mind babies. Go ahead. You should totally ask him for one."

"Dude, what the f- " Beca was about to swear at Stacie when Aubrey tutted quickly and tipped her head towards the kids. "- What the fresh he- hay are you talking about? We just got back together. It's only been a month."

Yeah, she was back with Luke.

On a trial basis.

Like no strings attached, let's see where this takes us kinda basis.

They had parted amicably and had kept in touch. When Luke suggested they should give it another shot, Beca agreed yes, maybe, what the hell, okay, why not. It was definitely not baby-making level serious yet.

"It's never too early to think about these things, Beca," Aubrey spoke up, warming up to the subject. "You don't have to have one straightaway and Jesus, please don't tell the poor guy. You just need to at least keep that possibility at the back of your mind. Y'know, whether you want to have a family with this guy someday. It's only sensible."

If Aubrey thought Beca was listening to all her good advice, she was wrong. The tiny brunette was now distracted by her phone, which had been buzzing for the last minute. Beca had handed Errol over to Chloe and was now reading through her incoming texts and had a small smile playing on her lips. Then she stood up.

"Umm...sorry. I gotta - " she said vaguely before walking towards the door.

Aubrey observed the weird way Beca was hunched over her phone, furiously typing back her replies , oblivious to everyone around her and when she was out of earshot, the blonde took another sip of her wine.

"That thing with Luke seems to be going well," she commented.

"You would think she's texting Luke, huh?"

Both Aubrey and Stacie looked up at Chloe who had Errol propped on her waist.

"She's not texting Luke?" Stacie asked, curious now.

"It could be Luke," Chloe replied. "But it is more likely she's texting Jesse."

"What?" "Whoah. This is new."

Chloe noted the surprised looks on her friends' face and nodded sagely. "Yep," she said. "They got this strange text friendship going on now. They would spent hours just texting each other. For hours. Back and forth. I don't know what the hell they talk about. It's pretty weird."

"Oh. My. God. Something's going on!" Stacie gasped. "I knew it! I knew it! Those two are, like, made for each other. It's inevitable!"

"Nope. Nothing's going on" Chloe sighed. "Beca's with Luke, remember? And Jesse is dating that colleague of his, Sara."

Yep, they've all heard about Sara. Chloe had told them in great detail about the school visit. Ok, it started awkward between them but who could resist such a hottie in uniform, especially when he was so good with kids? Chloe knew Beca couldn't. Then that ladder rescue had been so cute and Jesse run up to say goodbye.

From her vantage point in the school bus, she was getting far too excited watching Beca and Jesse talking to each other. She was smiling. He was smiling. It looked like it was going great until that car pulled up and a blonde goddess leaned out of the car. At that moment, one of kids started misbehaving and Chloe was busy handling the situation, totally missing what was happening outside. Judging by Beca's frozen face as she clambered up the bus, it couldn't be good.

It took a little incessant digging and several nosy phone calls to Benji before Chloe found out who that blondie was. She just transferred over from another station. She was amazing. She and Jesse got on well. They've just started going on dates.

"So - " Aubrey spoke up. "Jesse and Beca are friends now?"

"Weird text friends," Chloe confirmed, making a face. "Friends who never met."

"You mean they've been texting constantly and never meet up?" Stacie spoke up, looking incredulous now. "Didn't he asked her out once? I sorta remember -"

"Yeah, he did. For coffee. But Beca had a meeting and couldn't go," Chloe answered. "Then there was some other stuff and something always comes up. Maybe if we could find a way -"

She trailed off, staring at Stacie for ideas.

"Don't look at me," Stacie spoke up. "My idea was for them to get drunk together and make out. But that ended up with a broken nose and Aubrey losing her shit."

"Oh god, it's all my fault," Aubrey groaned. "If I hadn't been the crazy pregnant lady that night, who knows? They might be together by now."

"Oh honey," Chloe replied, handing Errol over to Aubrey now. "Don't blame yourself. Things happen and Beca is back with Luke anyway."

"But he has such an ugly laugh." Aubrey shuddered, popping a pacifier into Errol's mouth. "I never noticed it before but now Beca pointed it out, that is all I can hear. He's not the man for Beca. I hate to say this and but we need to get Jesse and Beca together."

Stacie was looking thoughtful now.

"I wonder whether we could make them meet up?"

* * *

 _So not the pink one?_

Beca took a second to read the incoming text and typed a reply back.

 _No. Blue. Go with the blue._

 _Not pink?_

 _Dude, I told you. Blue. The pink's hideous._

She knew Jesse was not there to see it but Beca rolled her eyes anyway. Seriously, that pink shirt was ugly. It was this weird shade called salmon but it was very clearly orangey pink. It would look totally hideous on him. No, she told a lie. Jesse would probably look good in it because well, he's a hottie. But that blue shirt would look better on him.

 _You rolled your eye at me_ \- the next text came from him, followed by the appropriate emoji. Beca nearly laughed out loud - _Ok, I bought the blue one._

Beca shook her head, wondering how did they get to be fast friends via text. Yeah, she did say he could text her and he did. Nothing major. Just a few back and forth checking up on each other; which tended to turn into long, unruly conversations where they would change from topic to topic and then forgot what they started talking about in the first place. She would text him funny stories about her work or how she tried to escape being pinned down for extra work by Principal Geller. He would text to ask her opinion on things like this huge dilemma he was having at the moment on which colour shirt to buy. Y'know, life changing decisions like that. Beca found it hilarious.

It was nice.

What they had was comfortable and nice.

 _Why did you even think of the pink?_ \- Beca texted back. - _Not like you, dude._

There was a long pause before he replied.

 _Sara likes pink_.

Ah. Of course.

Sara.

Blonde firefighter Sara.

White teeth, golden haired, athletic body that make models weep, Sara.

Apparently, Jesse and Sara might be a thing. He was dating the blond bombshell. What's not to like? She was pretty and perky and they shared so much in common. Plus Sara never made Jesse throw up or ended up in A&E after a date.

And no, Beca was not jealous.

They were friends.

Friends should be happy for one another.

Good on him for landing such a perfect catch. Yay Jesse. But that meant steering clear of things like trying to meet up or cutting short any long, deep conversations that just proved what an amazing guy he was nor did she accept any party invites at his place where she might get drunk and do something terribly stupid, like trying to make out with him. That would be super weird. Plus, she was now back with Luke.

 _Dude, if Sara like pink, buy the pink -_ Beca hastily typed back.

 _Nah, I stick with the blue_ \- came his quick reply. - _I actually like the blue better. Plus I asked for your opinion. I should listen to it._

 _Dork -_ Beca thought fondly before pocketing her phone and returning back to the other room.

* * *

 **A week later**

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Chloe asked, looking a little worried.

"Trust me. It will," Stacie insisted.

"She won't like it. You are going to stood her up."

"For the greater good, Chlo -" Stacie said. "Do you want those two to meet up or not?"

"Yeah. Of course I do!" Chloe replied. "Like you said, those two are meant to be together. I am definitely Team Jesse."

"And Benji?"

"I never knew this till recently but Benji is Team Beca."

"Then shut up and pass me the popcorn,"Stacie said, reaching for the bowl beside Chloe. "And get ready to call Benji when I tell you to."

* * *

 _She's late._

Beca glanced irritably at her phone, noting the time. She had been waiting twenty minutes already and it would have been great if Stacie could, at least, text her saying she was running late. It was a Thursday night as well. Beca couldn't really stay out that late, what with all the marking and lesson plans she had to prepare for next week but somehow Stacie manage to cajole her to come out for drinks and dinner. She had just closed a big deal at work and wanted to celebrate.

Beca hated to be kept waiting. She just felt like a lemon sitting at the bar, nursing her drink. Already a couple of men were eyeing her up and Beca was in no mood to hand someone's balls back on a plate. _Dude, where are you?_ \- Beca typed into her phone.

"Hi, can I buy you a drink?"

Beca looked up from her phone to find a guy with short sandy hair and hipster beard smiling at her. Great. One of the posse eyeing her seemed to have found some liquid courage and broke from the pack.

"No thank you," Beca replied, her gaze falling on her phone again. "I'm waiting for someone."

"Oh? You waiting for someone?" hipster beard replied. "Do you want to come over and wait with us?" He gestured at the direction of the other guy. Red head, pale and shocking taste in ties - Beca noted.

She shook her head. "Thanks. But no thanks."

"Come on, just one drink?"

"No. I still got mine."

"We're pretty fun."

"I'm sure you are," Beca grimaced, still looking down at her phone.

"What? You don't wanna have some fun?"

At that moment, Beca would have gladly throw the drink into the guy's face, because hipster beard was beginning to annoy her and invading her personal space. He was also grinning a little creepily at her - the kind of creepy, bravado grin after five beers and a shot. A glassful of wine should be able to wipe that smirk off his face; except Beca didn't want to waste her drink and at that precise moment, she heard a familiar voice.

"Hi. Sorry I'm late. Traffic was horrendous."

It was not the voice she was expecting. Not by a long mile. Beca visibly jumped as she whipped round to look at the owner of that voice. Of course she knew who that voice belonged to. No, it did not belong to her tardy tall brunette friend with sky high boobs. It belonged to a dark-haired hot fireman, her text friend, whom Beca seen half naked on a calendar. The said fireman was now standing next to her, by her elbow but Beca was in that surreal place where her eyes and ears were telling her one thing and her brain was saying another.

Jesse Swanson?

Jesse Swanson was here? At this freaking bar?

"Hey..." Beca answered back weakly, her head slowly catching up.

"Sorry I'm late," Jesse said breezily. "Did you wait long?"

How? What? She was not waiting for him.

"No -" Beca answered, still a little slow. Beca must have looked stunned standing there at the bar because Jesse gave her a quick smile before shifting his gaze to hipster beard on her other side.

"Who's your new friend?" he asked, gazing intently at the guy. Jesse's smile was still intact but it didn't reach his eyes this time. He looked kinda menacing? Was that like a growl? And why was he casually leaning into her?

"Umm.." Beca answered, a little flustered. "No one."

Hipster beard dropped back a step and looked almost apologetic. "Sorry, bro. Thought the lady would like a little company," he muttered in defence.

"Well, the lady wouldn't like a little company," Jesse replied, his hand lightly landing on Beca's shoulder. Yep, there was definitely a growl in there. "So if you could -"

Hipster beard didn't wait for Jesse to finish his sentence and slunk back to his friend. Beca kept her face straight until he was well across the bar before turning round to face the smiling dark haired man by her side.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Becasl whispered-yelled, grinning at the man next to her.

"I could ask the same about you," Jesse replied, grinning back. "Isn't it a school night, Miss Mitchell? Why are you out?"

"Teachers are allowed to have fun, y'know," Beca snarked back. The bartender was right in front of them and Jesse got himself a beer once he checked whether Beca would like another one. "You nearly scare the hell out of me just 't expecting to see you here."

"I wasn't expecting to see you," Jesse answered. "I walked into the bar and what did my eyes landed on? Beca Mitchell at the bar being harassed by some idiot."

Beca rolled her eyes.

"And of course, you have to rescue me."

"He looked pretty insistent," Jesse said. "And you looked pretty..." He uncomfortably cleared his throat. "Pretty pissed. You looked pretty pissed."

"I was," Beca admitted, casting a sour eye at the two guys who had now moved on to a group of women on the other side. She turned her attention back to Jesse, mock scowl on her face. "You seem to have this habit of rescuing me, Mr. Swanson. You should really stop doing that."

"Well, what can I say?" Jesse shrugged with a smile. "I'm a firefighter. It goes with the territory."

Beca couldn't help smiling back and tried hiding it by taking a sip of her wine. She casted her eyes over him quickly. He was wearing the blue shirt, the one she helped picked out, and a very well fitting jacket. Well groomed, clean shaven and a whiff of cologne that reminded Beca of warm wood, sexy leather and fresh citrus.

"Shirt looks good on you." Beca remarked. "So you're meeting Sara here?"

"Umm...not exactly. Benji asked me out for a quick drink. Not sure why he chose this bar though. Not our usual haunt."

"Maybe he had something private to talk about," Beca shrugged. "But you didn't just dress up like this for Benji, right?"

Jesse's mouth stretched Ito a quick smile showing off his dimples. He was about to answer when Beca's phone started pinging. She hastily looked down, at the message that come through. Stacie said she was having a bout of diarrhoea and was not coming.

 _Stacie, what the_ hell? - Beca typed back

 _I'm so sick. Sorry boo_ \- came Stacie's reply.

 _You were fine just now. What happened?_

 _Dunno_ \- Stacie typed back - _I had fajita for lunch. Maybe that or it might be that blowjob I gave to Marcus at work. He wasn't very clean._

Beca nearly threw her phone down in disgust.

 _Dude, TMI!_ \- she hastily replied back.

"Everything ok there?"

Beca was reminded that she was not entirely alone at the moment. Jesse was standing next to her, a quizzical expression on his face. Beca's eyes roved over his face for a moment, her mind still deep in thought before she shook her head and pasted a smile on her face.

"Yeah. It's fine. Stacie's not feeling well," she replied. "I'm trying to make up my mind what to do next.."

"Oh." Jesse glanced down at the phone in his hand. "That's weird. Benji just texted me saying he's held up."

* * *

"Ok, Benji checked. Jesse's at the bar," Chloe said, reading off her messages. "He just texted Jesse saying he can't come."

"Yes!" Stacie crowed. "That should do it. He's too much of a gent to leave her hanging at the bar alone."

"They have dinner and wine." Chloe sang. "They will look across the table at each other and realised they are meant for each other."

"He sends her home. She asks him in for coffee," Stacie continued excitedly. "And then, BOOM! Babies."

"Yeah," Chloe grinned. "That's absolutely perfect. What could go wrong?"

* * *

Both of them were staring at his phone now.

Yeah. This is awkward. Benji cancelled? And so did Stacie? Beca's forehead knitted into a frown. If she was the suspicious kind, she would think Stacie would be up to her usual tricks. But Benji cancelled too. How did that happened? That didn't add up.

"So...hmm," Jesse cleared his throat. "What do you want to do now?"

He was staring at Beca like he was trying to read what her next move was. She was trying to read his.

"I supposed I could go home and mark my papers." Beca made a face as she contemplated that. "- maybe get a Chinese takeaway on the way home."

"That sounds good," Jesse said slowly. "Umm..so you have to get dinner?"

"Yeah dude. I'm hungry," Beca deadpanned. "What about you? Have you had something to eat yet? Do you want to grab a pizza perhaps?"

He looked crestfallen.

"Actually the plan was to have drinks with Benji first," Jesse confessed. "Then I'm meeting up with Sara after she gets off the late shift."

"Oh. Ok." Beca answered. Of course he would be meeting up with his girlfriend after. He wouldn't dressed up so nicely just to have drinks with Benji. Beca got off the stool gingerly and reached for her purse. "Um..I better get going. See you around, Jesse."

It was a trifle hard to hold her smile. Beca didn't know exactly why. She was shrugging on her coat and was ready to leave when Jesse spoke up.

"Do you want to have dinner with me?"

Beca thought she misheard him.

"Excuse me?"

Jesse cleared his throat again and spoke a little louder this time.

"I don't really have to be at Sara's until much later. And now that you mentioned pizza, I'm kinda hungry," he said. "So how about it? Pizza?"

Beca tilted her head to one side and stared at Jesse.

"Dude, do you know what you're asking for? We -" she gestured between both of them. "- don't have a good track record being in the same place at the same time, together. I don't want either of us to end up in hospital tonight."

He was chuckling now.

"Beca Mitchell, I can't believe you are superstitious. Come on, I'm willing take the chance," Jesse cajoled her. "Last time we met nothing happened. The fire station is still standing and no one got hurt."

It took another long minute for Beca to consider this. It was going to be fine. They were friends. They could have a bite to eat together and hang out a little. It was totally not wrong.

"Yeah, ok," she reluctantly agreed. "You pay for pizza. I'll take the drinks."

* * *

 **At the pizza place**

"Ok ground rules."

They were seated at this cute pizza parlour that Jesse usually go to. It was the whole she-bang. Intimate booth, red and white checked table cloth, candles dripping onto wine bottles. Obviously the owner knew Jesse by the way he hailed him as Jesse walked through the door. The owner was also curiously looking at Beca who was right behind him.

"Ground rules?" Jesse questioned, taking a swig of the house wine the waiter left on their table. The waiter was also eyeballing the both of them and had turned to the owner speaking in rapid Italian whilst gesturing at both of them.

"Yes, ground rules," Beca said. "I'm serious, dude. I don't want to end up in hospital tonight and I intend to deliver you to Sara in one piece."

"Ok. Hit me."

"No CPR or Heimlich or anything of that sort."

"But what if - wait, you want me to leave you to die if an emergency happened?" Jesse piped up, sounding incredulous.

"Let someone else do it. You stay on your side of the table," Beca insisted. "We have to be at least three feet apart and you're to stay in front of me at all times. That way there is no way I will break your nose again."

"Bec, I'm sure you won't -"

"Plus I'm 100% certain they -" Beca gestured to the waiter and owner who were ogling them "- think there's something going on here. So stay where you are."

Jesse turned to look and caught both men. They smiled sheepishly and gave him a thumbs up.

"Okaaaayy," Jesse drawled out, a little spooked now. "Fine. Three feet away. Stay this side of the table. Got it. Also just so you know I take this very seriously, I've checked there are no roller coasters nearby and there are no planned movie screenings in this restaurant. So no one is throwing up today."

"You are an idiot," Beca grinned up at him.

"The restaurant has an 'A' hygiene rating so no chance of food poisoning," he continued. "Matteo over there promised the pizza won't be piping hot so it will burn our mouths and he's on standby if any accidents happen."

"Ok," Beca nodded, trying to keep a straight face.

"Can we eat now?" Jesse asked. "Please?"

* * *

 **A little while later**

"I'm telling you that book is trash," Jesse was saying, waving his fork in the air. "How can any woman read that? The whole psychology of the relationship is bordering on abusive. Ana was a pushover."

"Dude, it might look like that but Ana was topping from the bottom," Beca reiterated her argument. "She may seem like a pushover but she hold all the cards. Christian is putty in her hands."

"She didn't know that. I'm sorry, that guy has serious issues, man."

"And she helped him through that. In a weird, twisted way, she helped him," Beca warmed up to her argument. "There is a sweet love story in the midst of all that soft porn."

Jesse hurriedly gulped down the wine he was drinking.

"Please don't remind me of all the sex scenes," he remarked, making a face now. "Do you have any idea how many chained up couples we had to rescue after those books came out? Breaking open down a door and seeing a middle-aged man stark naked chained to a desk is not one of my favourite jobs."

Beca had to laugh. Jesse looked halfway nauseated and horrified.

"Dude, your face!" she choked back. "What's wrong? Can't handle seeing some BDSM?"

"Far from it," Jesse retorted. "If done right, it's pretty amazing. But people think they are experts after reading a couple of pages of Fifty Shades and then they get into trouble. It's irresponsible and a waste of community resour- What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

Beca's mouth was hanging open at this point.

"You are into it!" Beca gasped out loud.

"What? No. I don't know what you're talking about," Jesse swiftly replied, flustered.

"Yeah you do. You just admitted it just now.," Beca sing-songed out gleefully. " Well, well, who would've thought clean cut American hero Firefighter Swanson likes a bit of spanking? Tell me, are you a sub or a dom?"

"That's private."

"Come on now," Beca teased. "Silk scarves, riding crop? Handcuffs? The real ones can get a little uncomfortable, if you're not careful."

"Oh? How did you know that?" Jesse countered and then the penny dropped. "Unless..."

Beca promptly shut her mouth and pretended to be busy with her pizza.

"So... Handcuffs, huh?" Jesse teased back.

"Shut up."

"Real ones? Not those pink fluffy ones?"

"I'm not saying."

"Make sure you know how to get out," Jesse went on. It was his turn to grin now. "- Because I don't want to be called out to an emergency and find you... Ermm...well. Uh-".

That grin on his face flattered as soon as the mental image of Beca, half naked and cuffed to a bed, came into mind. Jesse quickly shut up and took another swallow of his wine.

"Y'know, this is healthy," Beca said, looking up from her pizza. "Talking about this is healthy. We shouldn't be ashamed on what we like. I mean, how are we going to have fulfilling sex lives if we're too ashamed talk about it?"

"You're right," Jesse agreed.

"Fine, I'll start," Beca went on, taking another swig of her wine for courage. "I like a little bit of variety. Nothing too heavy. I shouldn't feel uncomfortable talking about that, right?"

Jesse blinked in surprise at Beca's confession. That was pretty hot.

"Ah, what the heck," he answered after a pause. "I'm the same. Nothing too extreme and provided it is consensual and limits are agreed, I'm happy to take charge. Although it's very sexy if a girl takes over -"

"Ok, good to know." Beca remarked trying not to let her imagination run wild. "Umm.. Only with a long term partner for me, and it has to be part of other things. I would run a mile if the guy can only get off if we only do that."

"Yeah," Jesse answered. "It has to be mutual and respectful. None of those humiliating or slapping about stuff. I don't think I can do that."

"No. I can't do that. Light spanking is nice though."

"Yeah. It is," Jesse replied. And then he flushed red, glancing at his still full wine glass. "Jeez, how much did I have to drink? I don't usually run my mouth like this. I mean, I don't even talk about this kind of thing with Sara -"

There was a beat of silence as Beca took that information in.

"Ok..." she said, "Moving on."

* * *

 **A lot later**

"So do you think your parents' divorce made you feel that way?" Jesse asked.

They were only a handful of people left in the restaurant. The pizza was long gone and they were halfway through dessert. Matteo the owner stopped by once or twice to check on them, charmingly spoke to Beca at length and after a side-along glance and a knowing smile at Jesse, left them well alone.

"What? You mean, marriage?" Beca answered after swallowing her spoonful of tiramisu. She then looked a little thoughtful. "I won't say it didn't have an impact on me 'cos that's a lie. For a long while, I thought maybe marriage is not for me but things changed, y'know."

She paused for a moment, thinking.

"I see my friends, like Aubrey, who is happily married and surrounded with kids. And my friend, CR, with her partner. They made it work and they are happy. So my opinion changed. Want about you? How about your parents?"

"My parents been together for nearly thirty-two years and they still hold hands," Jesse replied. "I think that's pretty impressive and I love to have something like that. It's not plain sailing all the time though. Marriage is hard work."

"See? That's it," Beca spoke up. "Getting married does not end at wearing a white dress in front of everyone and saying I do. It's a huge commitment and it's fucking scary. If I could find someone to could stick by me, hold my hand and not run at the first opportunity -"

"Great catch like you? " Jesse replied. "I don't think you'll find it difficult to find someone."

"Yeah thanks," Beca answered, a little depreciatingly. She figured he was teasing her and being slightly sarcastic.

"I mean it," Jesse insisted. "I think you're great, Beca. Any guy is lucky to have you."

Beca tried to work out whether Jesse was being serious. It was difficult to tell. It was either the wine or the candlelit lighting but he was looking a little blurry and..sweet? She couldn't find the right word to describe that look on Jesse's face. Beautiful? Downright fucking gorgeous? She settled on sweet. Jesse Swanson was the sweetest guy.

"Wow, you really think that? Well, any girl is lucky to have you too," Beca replied earnestly, raising her glass to him. "To our future life partners, wherever they may be. They don't know how fucking lucky they are."

"Weirdo," Jesse chuckled. His laugh was warm and affectionate as Jesse raised his glass to clink against hers.

* * *

 **A lot lot later**

"So things are going well with Sara, huh?"

"Hmm?" Jesse replied, trying to focus on what Beca was saying.

He should really try to sober up. The strong coffee was helping but he still had this slight buzz round his head and weird voices were beginning to prompt him to do stupid things like lean over and kiss Beca already. Which of course he was not going to do. Because she was going out with Luke and he had a girlfriend.

"Oh. Sara!" Jesse answered once his brain played catch-up. "Yeah, can't complain."

"Yeah, I bet," Beca was grinning. "What? Was it like four months? Must be pretty sweet."

"Three, actually."

Beca nodded enthusiastically.

"I'm happy for you," she said sincerely. "I know I only met her for like five minutes but she seems nice!."

"She is." Jesse replied. "She's really nice."

"And dude, she's a firefighter too. So you guys can talk about all those firefighting stuff all the time."

"Yes, we do."

Jesse grew a little thoughtful as he raised the coffee cup to his lips. Yeah, both him and Sara had a lot in common. She was very committed to her job and they talked shop all the time, even when they go out on dates. She liked movies and it wasn't difficult to persuade her to join him for long movie marathons. It was very...easy...with Sara.

"She doesn't like roller coasters," Jesse spoke up.

"There you go."

"She doesn't play Halo nor any video games either."

"Ha ha! So she doesn't hand your ass on a platter then, hey?" Beca winked. "Bonus."

"She doesn't drunk rap."

"Man, you broke bank," Beca commented happily. "It's all good, Swanson. Sounds like, Sara's the girl for you. She's your soulmate."

Jesse was staring at her like he was seeing her clearly for the first time. It would have been disconcerting if Beca was 100% sober and didn't have this happy, whizzy alcoholic buzz round her. Yay, her friend..no, her good friend..found his soulmate. She should be happy for him. She was a little sad for herself because damn girl, this guy was mighty fine but timing was a bitch and obviously things did not work out for them. She was just glad they could be good friends.

"Dude, why are you staring me like that?" Beca asked lazily.

"Nothing," he replied, shaking his head. Jesse drank the rest of his coffee. "How's Luke?"

"He's ok," Beca replied.

"I gotta admit I wasn't expecting you to get back with him," Jesse said. "I thought that was off the table."

"What can I say? He's hot," Beca shrugged. "And blonde with a cute English accent. Yeah, that laugh made me think a pack of hyenas is near but hey, didn't you told me once if it is something I can overlook, I should. And if I found someone perfect, I shouldn't let hat someone go?"

"I did, didn't I?" Jesse said quietly.

Almost too quietly, like he was talking to himself. It was a trifle strange how serious he looked as he said that. Beca noted his coffee cup was now empty. He must have downed it and getting more sober as they speak. And what the fuck? Was that the time?

"Fuck, it's nearly eleven!" Beca panicked, glancing again at the time.

"Shit," Jesse swore when he checked his phone.

They both looked round the restaurant and noticed they were the only customers left. Half of the restaurant was in semi darkness and being tidied up. One lone busboy was sweeping the floor while Matteo and the other waiters were talking and drinking some wine in between bites of a late night snack. How did they missed all that?

"Let me get the cheque and I send you home," Jesse hurriedly said, taking his wallet out.

"No, I can take a taxi," Beca refused. "I kept you long enough. It's fine."

"Bec, it's late. I'm sending you home."

Maybe it was the way Jesse's voice went all firm which made her shiver a little. Or maybe it was because she was having such a nice time she didn't really wanted it to end just as yet. Whatever it was, Jesse was staring her down and Beca found herself nodding in acquiescence and wondering what the hell she just got herself into.

* * *

 **Much, much later**

"Welp, this is me," Beca spoke up. "You got me home."

It took them a half an hour walk before they ended up in front of Beca's place. Taxis were surprisingly hard to get but perhaps they weren't really looking hard enough. The plan was to walk a little further down from the restaurant and see whether they could flag a cab. But once they started walking and talking, it just made sense to keep going.

They changed from one subject to another, the words and laughs flowing easily between them but their conversation soon petered out to a comfortable silence the nearer they got to her place. They just walked side by side, appreciating the companionable quiet between them.

The cool night air and the walk were great at sobering Beca up. Better than that cup of coffee at the restaurant. She was aware perhaps Jesse should really hurry off. It was late. Sara should be off from her late shift already. It also didn't escape her notice that Jesse's phone buzzed a couple of times. He ignored his phone but when it got more insistent, Jesse checked his messages, typed a quick reply back and slid his phone back into his pocket without a word. She didn't need a degree in theoretical physics to figure out who was trying to call him.

"Here -" Beca said, hastily shrugging off his jacket she had been wearing. He had noticed she was shivering halfway through and had gallantly taken off his jacket and draped it round her shoulders. Beca protested - it felt way too intimate somehow - but Jesse had insisted, saying he did not want to be responsible if she caught pneumonia or something even worse. "Thanks for lending it to me."

"Not a problem," Jesse replied, taking the jacket off her. He thought she had looked adorable, drowning in his jacket. She was so tiny his sleeves nearly came down to the tips of her fingers. Jesse glanced up the walkway to her place and turned back smiling.

"So. Zero accidents so far," he commented with a grin. "We did good, right?"

Beca was shaking her head, nearly laughing it loud.

"Don't be too cocky, Swanson," she chided. "It's not yet midnight and we both know you are in hella lot of trouble already."

Was it that obvious?

Could she really see right through hm?

Oh, he was in trouble alright.

He had such a great time and truthfully speaking, Jesse felt he could stay here until sun up just talking to her. His arm brushed against hers once accidentally and then again as they walked alongside just now, their hands were knocking into each other's. And Jesse had the sudden urge to take her hand in his. It was fucking crazy for him to think that way and Jesse had quickly shoved his hands into his pockets before it got weird.

"Whatever do you mean?" Jesse scoffed back, trying to hide his nerves.

"Jess, it's late. You should've been somewhere else hours ago," Beca replied. "I'm really sorry if you got into trouble with Sara"

"Oh. Sara's cool with it," Jesse deadpanned. "I told her you were blind stinking drunk and I had to sober you up and walk you home."

"Gee. Thanks."

"I didn't really," Jesse chuckled. "Tell her you're drunk, that is."

"Whatever dude," Beca laughed back. "Just let me know if you need me to say anything to Sara. I owe her one for ruining your date."

"It's not really a date," Jesse clarified. "I was just going round to her place to hang out."

"Ok. If that's what you call it." Beca looked up at the front door and then back to Jesse again. "Once again, thanks for the pizza. I was supposed to pay for the drinks but you didn't let me."

"It's fine."

"Okay, goodnight."

"Night, Beca."

"See you around."

She gave him one last smile before heading for the door.

"Beca -"

"Yep?" Beca answered, turning back.

Jesse was rubbing the back of his neck again.

"I know we usually text each other and that's great," he rambled. "Our text conversations are absolutely great, by the way. Really love sexting - I mean, texting you." He felt a flush creeping up his face but Jesse soldiered on. "But this is really great. I had a good time tonight. So what do you say - if we hang out more like this? Y'know, maybe grab a coffee sometime or pizza. Matteo was already asking when's the next time I'm bringing you again. He really took a shine on you. Or maybe if I provide a vomit bag, perhaps we can catch a movie sometime?"

"You voluntarily want to hang out with me?" Beca asked sounding surprise. "Like on purpose?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Dude, our track record is not good. Something always happen."

"Not tonight. And it was fine at the fire station."

"Tonight's meeting was an accident. Maybe it's just a fluke."

"I don't think so. Unless -" A thought suddenly occurred to Jesse and he was a little less confident now. "- unless you didn't have a good time and -"

"No, dude. This was fun," Beca spoke up. "I had a great time."

Yeah, she did. One of the best dates ever. Except it was not a date. And she basically hijacked what should have been Jesse and Sara's time together because she was enjoying herself too much and wasn't keeping track of the time. He was probably too polite to say otherwise. She was such a horrible person.

"Y'know -" Beca raised her head and gazed into Jesse's eyes. God, he had such nice chocolate brown eyes. "Like I said I had a great - but I don't think it's a good idea for us to hang out like this."

 _Because I think I am falling for you_ \- she added silently - _and this is not good._

"Okay," Jesse drawled out, looking momentarily stunned. He turned away slightly breaking eye contact and nodded in agreement. "I think I know what you mean. It might get weird."

 _Jesse, you dumb fuck. Can't you see she's crazy about Luke?_ \- he quietly berated himself - _She doesn't want to make it awkward hanging out with you. What were you thinking? -_

 _Jesus, Beca, get a grip_ \- Beca thought - _He has a girlfriend. He knows this will get weird._

"So we're good?" Beca asked.

"Yeah, we are." Jesse smiled.

 _Not really. I'm not. Fuck Jesse, pull yourself together. You've missed the boat. Deal with it._

"Ok, I better turn in," Beca nervously said out loud, breaking the tension in the air. "God, I am SO going to pay for this tomorrow. Text me when you get to Sara's, OK? Just so I know you're not eaten by zombies or werewolves or something."

"Way to make me feel brave walking home now." Jesse joked back, smiling.

"Night, Jesse." Beca smiled back

"Goodnight, Bec."

And for the second time, Beca went inside her house and stood quietly behind the closed door, listening to Jesse exhaling a deep breath before he moved away from the porch.

* * *

 **AN** : _Dedicated to laughterofguns, who is an awesome person. And sorry, this chapter is so long and didn't go anywhere :(_


	7. Dude, i'm trying to save yo ass

**Chapter Six**

"It didn't work? What do you mean it didn't work?"

Stacie had her fork raised halfway up to her mouth and her eyes were wide with surprise. They were having Sunday brunch at this cafe near Stacie's and Chloe had the uncomfortable job of reporting what happened on Thursday night. Chloe knew Stacie would react that way. Even Aubrey was staring at her, waiting for some sort of explanation.

"What can I tell you? It didn't," Chloe reiterated.

"But you both made sure they met up right?" Aubrey asked, gently patting Errol's back as the tiny baby slept on her shoulder.

"Yeah we did."

"So they spent the evening together?"

"Yep."

"And he sent her home? It was late you said."

"It was," Chloe answered. "It was almost midnight when they appeared at the door and I had to use my ninja skills to spy on them. It looked great from where I stood. She was smiling. He was smiling. She was wearing his jacket. HIS jacket."

"So where did it go wrong?" Aubrey picked on further.

"I don't know," Chloe shrugged in defeat. "If they stayed out that late, surely it meant they had a nice time. I was expecting Beca to float inside, starry eyes and smiley face. But she didn't. And, get this - she was in a foul mood and moping the last couple of days."

"Did she say anything at all?" Aubrey questioned.

"You know how Beca is," Chloe answered. "That girl is built like a fu - sorry, Bree- she's like a freaking tank when it comes to hiding her feelings. She didn't say a word."

"Is it him? Maybe Jesse said something?" Stacie wondered. "Did Benji give any clues?"

Chloe rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Y'know, I haven't ask Benji."

"Ask him then," Stacie said. "Like it or not, Benji is invested in this. Maybe he can find something out?"

Chloe was already dialling Benji's number and talking to him before Stacie could finish her sentence. Both Aubrey and Stacie eavesdropped, hanging on to Chloe's every word. A few "uh-huh"s and a long drawn out "Ooohh" later, Chloe ended the phone call and huffed a frustrated sigh.

"Jesse didn't say anything," she reported back. "Benji said sorry for bailing on Thursday and Jesse just waved him away. Didn't even tell him he met up with Beca."

"This is so weird," Stacie commented, stabbing her croissant in annoyance.

"But -" Chloe continued, holding a finger up for emphasis. "Benji also said Jesse had been very moody these few days and things seems a bit off between him and Sara."

"Now that is interesting," Aubrey spoke up, her green eyes gleaming. "Is Jesse moody because things are off between him and what's-her-name or did something happened with Beca?"

"Who knows?" Stacie piped in. "So what do we do now?"

Chloe's face suddenly split into a wide grin and her blue eyes twinkled out in mischief.

"Benji says it's time he throws a little party."

* * *

 **A couple of weeks later**

"Tell me why are we going to Benji's again?"

Beca was clutching a bottle of red in the backseat of Stacie's car and wondering for the umpteenth time how the girls, yet again, managed to persuade her to do things. This time it was to attend Benji's little soirée. Chloe and Stacie had breezed in a couple of days ago and told her about the party and said they were going.

"He thought it would be nice to throw a little dinner party," Chloe said from the front seat. "Nothing too big. Just a few friends. Something nice to eat and a few drinks, that sort of thing."

"Yeah. Right," Beca replied, slumping into the back seat.

"Come on, Bec," Chloe said, turning slightly in her seat to face Beca. "Benji had worked very hard on this. He had this cute little menu. Hors d'oeuvres, mains, cute little individual desserts. It's all very grown up. It would be awesome!"

Beca was sure it would be.

But she was still very reluctant to come.

It was not that she didn't like Benji. He was just the sweetest, most harmless guy Beca had ever met and under normal circumstances, Beca would not hesitate. It was just she was only too aware who else would be invited. She had received a text from Jesse yesterday, asking whether she was going to come.

Beca didn't reply.

In fact, she had not replied to many of his texts lately.

She had just sat there looking at his incoming text, chewing her lip, debating with herself whether she should reply. In the end, she would close down the message and ignore it. She didn't know exactly why she was acting this way. Maybe she was just so fucked up head-wise when it comes to Jesse. She would be lying if she said there was nothing there. Spending that evening with him just brought home what a great guy he was, that there was definitely chemistry between them and hell, she wanted to jump him so bad it hurts. So Beca decided she should stay away until she could worked through her stupid feelings and be a proper friend.

"Why are you so grumpy, Bec?" Stacie spoke up from the driver's seat, interrupting Beca's thoughts. "Come on. The party's going to be fun. It's not like you won't know anyone. We'll be there and so is Jesse. You guys are tight, aren't you?"

"Whoah! What's with the Inquisition?" Beca answered defensively. "We are not tight. He's just a friend. Like Benji is my friend. We don't talk like all the time or..or go out together. Or hang out. Like at all. Nothing like that kind of friend. More like acquaintances, really. Yes. Acquaintances. Besides, Jesse has a girlfriend. It would be weird."

Beca sputtered to a stop.

Shit.

She overcompensated. She so overcompensated and right now, Chloe and Stacie were glancing, open mouthed at her flushed face in the rearview mirror.

"Okaaaayy," Stacie drawled, turning her attention back to the road and taking the final turn before coming to a stop outside Benji's house. The three of them got out of the car and stared up the pathway.

So, this was Benji's place.

They were to have this nice, civilised, grown-up dinner party with a few close friends at this neat little house in this quiet suburb. Except, at the moment, the lights were all on. People were spilling out onto the lawn and loud music was blaring out at ear-deafening level. The place looked like there was a frat party going on full swing. And wait, was that a trampoline? Two guys were jumping up and down, one of them shouting "43rd rules!' at the top of his voice. That guy looked remarkably like Bumper.

"This is going to be fun," Stacie remarked gleefully as they walked up the pathway to the house.

The porch had small groups of people talking and drinking and making out. The door was opened and they walked right into a heaving mass of people cluttering the hallway. The living room had some sort of impromptu DJ spinning his IPod playlist and there were people dancing. The place stank of drink and weed. So much for a little intimate soirée.

The girls finally ran into Benji, coming out of his kitchen, looking hapless and harassed.

"Hi! You made it!" the curly-haired man said. He looked slightly relieved seeing the girls and hurried over to welcome them.

"Benji, what happened?" Chloe said after giving Benji a hug. Stacie just waved at him from where she stood whilst Beca awkwardly handed over the bottle of wine. Two burly guys walked past carrying a keg.

"I don't know exactly," Benji replied, looking confused. "Somehow my invite was posted on the inter-station bulletin board and we've got all these people turning up - " He was distracted when a few people playing tag ran past and nearly collided into his entertainment system. "Hey, be careful!"

"So you don't know these people?" Beca asked, looking round.

"Ummm...I know most of them," Benji answered. "Firefighters from other stations mainly but I think there's a few students from a nearby college."

"Dude, you may have minors here?" Beca said. "You'll be in a lot of troub-"

"Ease up, Beca," Stacie quickly interrupt. "Benji's stressed as it is. Do you need help, Benji?"

"If you don't mind, can you help do a snack run? I think some peole had been smoking pot and there's not much left of the hors d'oeuvres I've prepared," Benji asked. "And Bec, I really need your help with Jesse."

Beca blinked back in surprise. "What? Why me?"

"I'm sure Benji will explain, Beca. Meanwhile, we'll go and get more snacks," Chloe said brightly, tugging on Stacie's arm. "Some chips and cheeseballs ok? Ok. See you later, Bec."

"Wait -" Beca spoke up but her protests fell to deaf ears. Chloe and Stacie did a magnificent escape, leaving her with a nervous looking Benji. How did those two moved so fast? Beca sighed, turned towards Benjj and fixed a stoic expression on her face.

"Ok, Benji, what's up with that nerd?"

"He's been weird all day. Well, he's been acting weird these past few weeks and I don't know what the hell it is," Benji said. "Have he said anything to you?"

"Umm...we've -" Beca mumbled a little guiltily. "We've not been talking."

"Something is bothering him big time," Benji replied. "Normally, I would talk it out of him but - oh my god! Put those things down! They are collector's items!"

Benji broke off to bellow at two guys fighting with his lightsabers. They just laughed, before dropping the light sabers and running off. Benji rushed over to pick them up, cradling them protectively against his chest. He made his way up the stairs with Beca following close behind.

"Where do I find Jesse?" Beca hollered at him.

"What?" Benji shouted over his shoulder.

"Jesse. You wanted me to talk to him."

"Oh. Try the backyard," he said carelessly, still trying to protect his precious lightsabers. "He's slowly drinking himself stupid so he would be near the alcohol."

"What about Sara?" Beca shouted. "Maybe Sara should talk to him. She's his girlfriend!"

Benji stopped in his tracks and turned to face Beca, who was panting after that quick climb up the stairs.

"Things don't seem to be ok between them," Benji said. "I think he really need a friend right now, Beca. He needs you."

Beca didn't have an answer to that and she was aware she was opening and closing her mouth like a fish now. Benji had a pleading look on his face and she didn't have the heart to refuse him.

"He might be in the garage. Or the kitchen. Please can you find him? I don't want him drunk and making stupid mistake," Benji added. "Now if you would excuse me, I need to keep these in a safe place."

Beca slowly nodded and Benji hurried off to his locked bedroom. She turned to make her way down the stairs to look for Jesse Swanson. Great. Just great. That nerd was probably having problems with his girlfriend, Sara, and she, Beca Mitchell had to help both of them kiss and make up.

* * *

"Ok, Beca is looking for Jesse now," Benji whispered into his phone. He was standing in his darkened room after locking up his light sabers in his closet. They were on top of the Darth Vader helmet and his scale model of the X-wing fighter and Millennium Falcon.

He heard Chloe squealing down the phone line.

"Good work, Benji!" Chloe said. "Looks like the plan is going ahead. Stacie and I am going to drive around and we'll double back in an hour."

"Ok," Benji replied. "Umm.. you're still bringing the cheeseballs, right? It's just that I think I've heard them raiding my freezer already. They are really hungry, Chloe."

"You mean that wild party is not part of the plan?"

* * *

 _Now, think. If I were a guy intending to get blind drunk, where would I be?_

Beca had walked round and round the place at least three times but couldn't find that troublesome nerd. She had been pulled into a conga in the kitchen, someone tried to grind up behind her in the living room and she had walked into a couple having sex in a bathroom. Twice. Still no sign of Swanson. And all this loud, bad music was beginning to give her a headache. Someone jostled into her and she was about to yell at the person when she found herself face to face with the the very blonde, very beautiful Sara.

"Sorr -" Sara was about to apologise when she recognised the tiny brunette she nearly toppled over. "Hey, I know you! We've met before."

Beca quickly assessed the situation. Ok, she couldn't quite escape. Her way was blocked by this huge blondie here and she was actually staring at Beca with an expectant look on her face.

"Hey Sara," Beca reluctantly answered. "Yup, we've met. At the fire station. My school was visiting?"

"Oh. Yeah. Jesse introduced us. It's Becky, right?" Sara said. Without waiting for a reply, Sara barrelled on. "How did you get in here? I thought it's just Benji inviting all the firemen from nearby precincts, which is really stupid, if you ask me. No one parties harder than a fireman. He is so going to have his whole place thrashed by the time we're finished. I hope he has enough insurance."

Sara was sniggering as she took a gulp of her beer and she grinned at Beca.

"Oh look, you don't have a drink," she said. "Here. Have one."

She had swiped an unattended cup of beer off a table nearby and handed it to Beca. Beca looked at the cup suspiciously. There was no way she was going to drink that. She just took it to stop Sara pushing the beer against her and spilling it all over her top. Who drinks unattended alcohol anyway? That was just asking for trouble.

Sara was too occupied with necking her beer and swaying on the spot to the loud music to notice what Beca was up to and the brunette took the opportunity to surreptitiously checked Sara out. She didn't look sad or someone who might have a fight with her boyfriend. In fact, Sara looked downright cheerful. If there was trouble in paradise, it didn't look it. Beca plucked up the courage to ask.

"Hey Sara, have you seen Jesse?"

"What?" Sara yelled above the noise.

"Jesse? Where is he?" Beca shouted back. "Benji wanted me to look for him."

"Might be in the kitchen," Sara replied with a shrug. She then laughed. "Probably surrounded by his calendar groupies. There's a few of them about tonight. You know he was in that naked foreman calendar, right? He was Mr. September. Damn hot."

Yeah yeah. She knew. She had the calendar by her bed, just in case she need it for.. umm, research purposes.

"Those sluts are barking up the wrong tree," Sara continued gleefully. "They're not getting any from Jesse. He's taken!"

Yeah. Beca knew that too.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Sara said excitedly, clutching onto Beca's arm. She leaned in closer and Beca could smell the alcohol on her breath. "Don't tell anyone because it's not official yet. Jesse and I...We are moving in together!"

"What?" Beca yelled back, surprised. Ok, why the hell was Benji saying Jesse and Sara's relationship was in trouble? They were going to move in? Already?

"Yep," Sara nodded with a self satisfied smirk. "Although he's been a little odd lately and not talking much. Poor babe must be nervous to ask me to move in. I don't know why. I move in yesterday if he asked me."

"So he hasn't asked you?" Beca was clutching at straws.

"It's a matter of time." Sara replied confidently. "We are getting along so well together. And between you and me, I could really move out of my crappy apartment into his house. It looks amazing."

"Yes, it is," Beca agreed. "His grandma left it to him. It's been in the family for some time."

"Exactly! It's the kind of home you wanna have a family in, y'know." Sara said, giving Beca a wink. "Watch this space."

"Don't you think this is moving really fast? You've been together what? Four months?" Beca answered. "I mean Jesse couldn't even make up his mind on what colour shirt to buy, let alone deciding on something big like this. He sent me like ten different photos of those shirts and even then I had to tell him to buy the blue one."

Sara was looking a little less excited now.

"Three actually," she replied slowly. She was now scrutinising Beca with a suspicious look on her face. "Hang on. You seem to know a lot about Jesse."

Beca promptly shut her mouth.

"Your name's Becky, right?" Sara asked.

"Beca," she replied self-consciously. "It's Beca actually."

Sara was giving her this unnerving stare and Beca had this sudden urge to flee.

"Let me get this straight," Sara frowned down at her. "You are Beca."

"Yes."

"The Beca all the station crew said Jesse tried to heimlich at a restaurant once?"

"Yes."

"The Beca who went to the funfair on a date with Jesse. He threw up on you at a rollercoaster and then sprayed you with mud and water?"

"Yes."

"But you still came over his place, both of you got drunk, had sex and you broke his nose?"

"Technically, we didn't have sex," Beca clarified. "I passed out on top of him before we got any further."

Yeah, despite what it looked like, they didn't have sex that time. When they got into that comfortable phase of being text friends, Jesse had owned up. They were getting hot and heavy. His top was off. Her plaid shirt was tossed onto the sofa but when he was drunkenly trying to unhook her bra, Jesse found Beca had fallen asleep and was snoring against his neck.

But there was no time to reminisce on that now because holy shit-o moly, Jesse's girlfriend was towering over her and looking really scary.

"You are the Beca that Jesse had pizza with and had to walk home a couple of weeks ago? The one he had been texting non-stop these last few months?" Sara continued, spitting each word like a bullet. "The Beca everyone at the station was saying he is still mad about?"

Beca cringed at each accusation, cowering as Sara continued to tower over her.

"Yes?" she managed to squeak out.

"You are THAT Beca?" Sara yelled.

Beca closed her eyes, expecting a blow. When she didn't feel the might of the righteous girlfriend on her pale, scrawny ass, Beca opened one eye. Sara was still standing in front of her, mouth wide open and crazy eyed. She then proceeded to shut her mouth, took a deep breath and with all the calm she could muster, Sara woodenly said "Excuse me" before turning on her heels and walking away.

Beca felt like her insides were going to drop. Everyone in the near vicinity had witnessed what had happened and were all staring open mouthed at her.

"Thank you for not hitting me," Beca called out pathetically to Sara's retreating back.

Sara didn't turn round. And then Beca realised she has to find Jesse Swanson before his bent-on-the-rampage girlfriend did a number on his ass.

* * *

This was useless.

Beca had rushed around Benji's place twice again and still couldn't find Jesse. She couldn't find Benji either and now Beca was wondering whether she had landed in some Alice in Wonderland kind of place where spaces melt into one another and nothing made sense. She tried calling Jesse's phone but the reception was crap. Beca had to walk out onto the back porch where reception was strongest and found five missed calls from Luke.

"Yeah. I'm at a party," Beca was now saying to Luke. Of course she had to return the calls. It was what all good girlfriends do. Luke was saying something now which she couldn't make out. "What? Sorry, I can't hear you. Reception's bad and it's fucking noisy! I'm having a massive headache."

"Do you want me to pick you up?" Luke shouted back.

"What?"

"You have a headache. Do you want me to pick you up?"

Beca glanced at the time. It was nearly ten. She had no idea where Stacie and Chloe were. They were supposed to be back at least an hour ago. She couldn't find Benji. She couldn't find Jesse. And Jesse's Amazonian girlfriend was stomping somewhere on the property raring for a fight. Yeah, she should get out while she could.

"Yes please. Pick me up. I'll text you the address."

Beca ended the call and swiftly typed the address. Luke was probably finishing up at his station downtown and would take forty-five minutes. She could sit tight for that amount of time. She just have to find a hiding place somewhere.

Beca was heading back inside when she heard a breathy girly voice purring. "So...were you naked behind that fire hydrant? You have to be, right? It's a naked calendar."

Another female voice was cooing now.

"Y'know, I wrote some fan mail to you after that calendar came out. Perhaps you remember them? It was from Michelle?"

Then she heard that slightly embarrassed chuckle. One she knew quite well. Beca took a few steps to her right and peered round. There was a nook of some kind she had missed and just as she suspected, there was Jesse Swanson sitting down on a bench flanked by two girls.

The pervert! His girlfriend was somewhere in this place and he was making out with these two?

Well, technically he wasn't.

They were pawing him, though, with their dirty, skanky hands and he was trying to push them away. But one of them was now laughing and had her head close to Jesse. She was probably whispering something slutty whist trying to nibble his earlobe and Beca saw red.

"Jesse! There you are!" Beca yelled, loud enough to make those two sluts jumped apart. Jesse had a shell-shocked look on his face and Beca took the opportunity to march across to where they were. "Where the fuck have you've been? I've been looking all over for you."

"Umm..." Jesse tried to work his vocal chords and failing miserably. Beca stopped forward and grabbed his wrist. Despite her small size, she practically jerked Jesse to his feet.

"Your wife is going to give birth any moment and here you are getting drunk," Beca accused him. She turned to the two girls who were staring at her. "Leave this one alone, girls. He's good for nothing. Have seven kids at home and on his third wife already. Likes to make them pregnant and leave them. Run. Run far far away."

The girls were flinching in horror, flicking their gaze between Beca and Jesse. Beca was already twisting Jesse's arm and pushing him forward towards the house.

"What the -" Jesse mumbled. "Bec, what are you doing?"

"Saving your ass," Beca muttered back. "Don't stop. Keep moving."

It was not until they were just entering kitchen that Beca must have shoved him a little too hard and Jesse stumbled, stubbing his toe against the doorway.

"Oww," he complained, hopping on one foot. "Beca, stop."

"What?" Beca muttered dangerously. "What do you mean stop?"

"I hurt my foot," he pouted, raising his foot to show her. "See? It hurts."

 _Jeez_ \- Beca rolled her eyes - _Is_ _he drunk and trying to act cute?_ Because it was totally working and now she was confused as to why she had pushed Jesse all the way into the kitchen. And could he stop smiling sappily at her like that? It was distracting. She was trying to be q good friend and save his ass. His girlfriend was on some kind of mad rampage here and could murder him on cold blood.

"Can I know what this is all about?" Jesse asked. He still had that drunk, derpy smile on his face and he was casually lounged back on the kitchen corner. "I get it those two girls were coming on a little strong but you don't have to worry there, Beca. I wasn't the least bit interested in them."

"What the fu - dude, I don't care if you had a threesome with those two skanks -"

"You rescued me and honestly, that is the sweetest thing ever -" Jesse barrelled on. "- but I want you to know I was just minding my business, drinking my beer when they come on to me. I wasn't into them, Bec. Like, at all."

"Jesse, stop -" Beca swiftly hollered. "For god's sake, listen to me -"

Jesse was shaking his head now, frowning.

"I don't get it, Bec. What's up with you?" he complained. "I thought we were friends. We had such a nice time hanging out that night. Ok, I get it you don't want to hang out with me because of Luke. I get that. It's fine. But you ignored me for weeks. Weeks. I didn't get a text back. You didn't answer any of my calls. I was worried I did something terribly wrong."

Throughout his whole diatribe, Jesse had reached out for the bottle of tequila on the kitchen stand and down a shot in between. He grimaced as the alcohol burned.

"Now you appear out of nowhere -" he continued, pouring and licking some salt from the back of his hand. " -saying you were looking for me and looking all jealous when some other girls made a play at me. I'm so confused -". He then sucked on a wedge of lime.

"Your girlfriend Sara is looking for you!" Beca yelled. "And when she finds you, dude, you are in SO much trouble."

That was the moment when Jesse nearly swallowed the lime. He was choking and quickly thumped his solar plexus, being the trained EMT he was. The lime flew out of his mouth. And hit Beca straight in the eye.

"OWWWWW! Jesus effing Christ!" Beca yelled out, immediately cupping her right eye with her hand. It stung. It so fucking stung. The lime. The pip. That acidic juice. Whatever it was, her eye was stinging and Beca was doubling up in pain.

"Oh my god, Beca." she heard Jesse saying. "I'm so sorry. Are you ok?"

"My eye!"

"Let me look at it. Can you open it?"

"No, it hurts."

"Come on, baby. You can do this," Jesse coaxed her. He was trying to gently pulled her hand free. "Take away your hand. Let me look at it."

"For the last time, I can't open my eye. It fucking hurts," Beca bellowed back. Her eyes were streaming now and her right eye was on fire. "It's burning."

"Oh god," Jesse mumbled before speaking in what he hoped was a confident sort of voice. "We need to get your eye cleaned. I know where Benji keeps his eye wash. Let's go to the bathroom."

"Fuck the bathroom," Beca cried. "I wanna go to the hospital."

"Beca, listen to me," Jesse switched to his professional mode, all trace of drunkenness gone. "There might be a foreign object in there. You might get corneal abrasion. I won't know until I see it, OK? Most of the time, an eye wash and some drops are all that you need. If it's really bad, I'll send you to ER, I promise."

Why the hell did all these stupid things keep happening to her? Her eye really fucking hurt but the man was a trained EMT; so like it or not, he'd probably know what he was doing. As soon as Beca nodded, Jesse was tugging her hand to follow him. She was half blind, the place was smoky and crowded and Beca was stumbling a little.

Jesse stopped and asked, "You ok walking? Do you want me to -"

"Don't you fucking dare carry me. I can walk."

Somehow they managed to make it to the bathroom. Miraculously it was empty - no couple fornicating inside. Jesse immediately guided Beca to sit on the covered toilet before rummaging around for the eyewash. He was about to do it for her when Beca tore him another one about being able to wash her own eye, thank you very much. He did hovered when she was bent over the sink and helped her change the solution at every wash. Once he was satisfied she had flushed her eye enough times and it was no longer burning as bad, Jesse turned her round to face him.

"Ok, let me look at it," he said.

It didn't hurt that much so Beca tentatively opened her eye.

"It's dim in here so I'm going use a flashlight, OK? I just want to check there's nothing in here," Jesse said, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a small flashlight. "Tell me if the light hurts."

Beca nodded. The light was glaring but not that uncomfortable. He was carefully checking her top and bottom eyelids for any speck or debris, his hands gentle on her face.

"I'm really sorry," Jesse apologised. "I should have just swallowed that lime."

"Don't be stupid," Beca replied. "You might choke and I'm not that good with First aid. You could actually die."

He was chuckling quietly.

'This whole place is overrun with firefighters. I would have been ok."

"Dude, half of them are drunk and the other half probably on weed," Beca answered. "Trust me, you would be dead. Better for you to spit that stupid lime out."

"You sacrifice your eyeball so I won't die?" Jesse said in amusement. "I'm touched." He seemed satisfied her eye was clean. clicked the flashlight shut and slipped it back into his pocket. His hands were immediately back touching her face, tipping her head up for a closer check. "Looks all clean. Just a little red. I think you might need some drops."

"Where did you get the flashlight?" Beca asked, a little curious now.

"Always have one on me. You never know when you need one," he answered, smiling down at her.

"Nerd." Beca quipped back, trying hard not to return his smile.

She failed.

He was so close. They were standing almost nose to nose. He smelled a mix of tequila and that nice aftershave he always wore. She would only need to tiptoe, angled her head slightly and she could feel his lips against hers. Beca remembered how soft they were. He seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move. His hands had slid down, lightly holding her upper arms and his warm, irresistible chocolate eyes gazing down at her.

"So. Eye drops." Beca broke the spell. She nodded slightly, turning away. "I'l get some on my way home."

Jesse's smile was a little rueful as he took the hint and stepped back.

"Yes, you should," he spoke softly. "Who did you come with?"

"Stacie and Chloe. In Stacie's car," Beca replied, not meeting his eye. "But I don't know where they are now."

"Let me drive you home."

"No, dude, you've been drinking," Beca protested, tucking her hair self-consciously behind her ear. "Besides, Luke's picking me up in half an hour. I called him just now."

There was a beat of silence from Jesse.

"Yes. Of course Luke's picking you up," she heard him saying.

"I think I better wait outside."

Beca didn't know why she felt so awful all of the sudden. Jesse had straightened up and she could feel his gaze on her.

"You should," Jesse answered. "Let's get out of there. I need another beer."

He took the few paces towards rhe door and Beca stared at his broad back. Sne bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything. He looked slightly hurt just now and she couldn't help thinking it was her fault somehow. No. She was doing the right thing. This was crazy. They nearly kissed just now and the shocking thing was she really, really wanted to. She should wait outside at porch for Luke to arrive and take her home. Being in the same place with Jesse was proving to be rather dangerous.

He was also taking an inordinately long time to open the door.

It shouldn't take this long. You put your hand on the knob, twist and push. Jesse was doing all that. Except the door didn't seem to budge and he was now frantically rattling the knob.

"What's wrong?" Beca spoke up.

"It wouldn't open," Jesse answered. "I think it's jammed shut."

"Don't be stupid. Maybe you didn't undo the lock," Beca said, coming round to look.

"I'm telling you it's shut," Jesse said, clicking the lock back and forth.

It wasn't the lock.

"Stand back," he ordered and when Beca took a few steps back, Jezse tried shoving his shoulder hard against the door. The door would not budge.

"Looks like none shall pass," Jesse commented drily.

The lame joke went over her head.

"Are we locked in?" Beca began to panic. "Oh my god. We can't be!"

She proceed to hammer her tiny fist against the door and yelling for help at the top of her voice. Jesse jowned in. Someone should be able to hear the racket and rescue them but no one came.

"Help!" Beca yelled again, still hammering the door.

"Bec, stop. It's not working."

"What do you mean it's not working? HELP!"

"Bec, I'm telling you no one's going to open the door," Jesse said. "Stop. You're gonna hurt your hand."

"Why is no one coming?" Beca complained plaintively. She had stopped knocking on the door now. Jesse was right. Her hand was starting to hurt and her throat was a little sore from all at shouting.

"Wild party. Shut door. Rhythmic banging," Jesse reasoned. "They're going to avoid opening that door for a little while. And this bathroom kinda out of the way."

"Shit," Beca swore, sinking down to sit on the loo. He was right. No one will open the door. "What do we do now?"

* * *

 **AN** : _Hey, lookie, a new chapter. Thank you for your reviews and reads. Hope you like this one. Also shout out to Molly with her pie-baby. And Yuraed, ACBC huh darling?_


	8. Stuck

**Chapter Seven**

"Y'know, there's worse places to be stuck in."

Beca looked up from her phone to stare at Jesse. He was perched on the edge of the bath, scuffing his toe against the bath mat, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. They had been stuck in the toilet for a good fifteen minutes now and for the last ten, she had been frantically trying to get either the girls or Benji on her phone. But the reception had been diabolical. Those texts were probably not sent since no one rescued them yet.

"Think about it," Jesse continued in his monologue. "We've got access to clean water. There's no food but a man can survived without food for at least three days -"

"How long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Beca interrupted, sounding aghast. "And FYI, there's much better places to get stuck in. Like a supermarket. Or a toy factory. IKEA."

"Yeah," Jesse chuckled. "Definitely IKEA."

Beca took another look at the reception bars on her phone and she nearly threw it down in frustration. "Why is the reception here so bad?" she complained.

Jesse noted the scowl on her face.

"You really want to get out, huh?" he commented. "Like I said , I could try climbing out of the window."

Yes, that was one of Jesse's 'bright' ideas. There was a small window, opening up to the backyard and he had suggested he could shimmy out and get the door opened.

"For fuck sake, Jess, that window is tiny. You will not fit through," Beca answered back. "The last thing we need is for you to get stuck in there and have your firefighter friends rescue you. Trust me, they will not stop laughing." Beca glanced at the window and shook her head vehemently. "Plus it's dangerous."

"It's not that dangerous -" Jesse protested.

"Ok, if you don't think it's dangerous, why don't I climb out?" Beca challenged, turning back to stare at him. "Window's a bit small but I'll fit. You just need to boost me up and push me through."

"Noooooo, Bec. Are you crazy?" Jesse nearly yelled out. "We are on the second floor! You might fall and break something. I'm not going to let you hurt yourself."

"Same here, ok?" Beca replied. "You're my friend and I don't want to see you hurt."

"Good to know we're still friends," Jesse commented. "When you didn't return my texts, I thought -"

"Yeah. About that -" Beca said. "I'm really sorry. I was just in a weird headspace, ok? I just had a few things to work through that's been messing with my mind."

"You got something on your mind?"Jesse questioned gently. "You can always talk to me, you know that right?"

 _Yeah, like that would work_ \- Beca thought - _Not when he was the cause of it_. But Jesse looked so earnest and sincere when he said that, it was hard for Beca not to look away. Why must he be such a great guy?

"Enough about me," Beca quickly changed the subject. "What's up with you? Benji said you've been a bit off these few weeks."

"Benji said that?"

"Yeah. He's worried about you," Beca replied. "Said you were drinking yourself stupid somewhere. Asked me to make sure you are not doing something you'll regret later."

"That's why you were looking for me?" Jesse said. When Beca nodded, Jesse looked slightly disappointed although he did try to hide it. "There's nothing for Benji to worry about," he mumbled, looking away. "I'm ok."

Beca watched as Jesse stared at the floor.

"Are you really?"

* * *

"Did you get the text?"

Stacie was gleefully waving her phone at Chloe who squealed in delight. They had returned back form the snack run ages ago and so far had managed to dodge Beca. It wasn't hard. Beca was stomping around, intent on looking for Jesse, it was perfectly easy for both Chloe and Stacie to melt into the background. They had been enjoying the party when their phones pinged with texts from Beca's phone. Both of them were now poring over her latest message.

"Yep. They stuck in the bathroom upstairs. Beca is not happy," Chloe paraphrased Beca's more colourful text. "Send help."

Both of them burst out laughing.

Benji came round the corner and nearly ran into them, phone in hand. "You guys got the text?" he asked. One look at the girls' red faces confirmed it for Benji and for the first time that evening, a grin split his face.

Stacie's phone rang and she quickly picked it up.

"Aubrey? You got the text too?" Stacie spoke into her phone. "Yeah. Beca must be trying everyone on her contact list. I don't know how long they've been stuck there. Maybe ten fifteen minutes?"

She paused as Aubrey answered back.

"No. Of course not. We're going to leave them in there for a while. Yeah. It's either they kill each other or start making out. I'm taking bets."

Stacie was winking at Chloe and Benji at this point and Chloe was already hopping about and clapping her hands in excitement.

"Ok Bree, I'll keep you posted," Stacie brightly said. She ended the call and beamed at her two conspirators. "We all going to pretend we didn't receive Beca's texts right?"

"Yup." "Of course."

"I'm just wondering how they ended up in the bathroom though," Chloe spoke up. "That is SO random."

"I don't really care how," Stacie declared, clearly delighted how things were turning out. "What matters is that they are stuck in there. At most, I thought they were going to see each other again but damn it, this is SO much better!"

"Lucky thing the door's jammed, huh?" Chloe trilled excitedly.

"What's luck gotta do with it?" Benji suddenly spoke up.

Chloe and Stacie turned round to stare at Benji in surprise and the curly haired guy winked at both of them.

* * *

"So you're really not going to tell me?"

For the past ten minutes Beca had been trying to pry as to the reason Jesse had been upset. She didn't believe him for a minute when he said he was ok and Benji had nothing to worry about. For one, Jesse had refused to look at her straight in the eye and he had been increasingly evasive. He also seemed to be getting a little exasperated with Beca bluntly trying to make him talk.

"No." he had replied flatly at her latest attempt.

"Come on, dude. We're friends, right?" Beca wheedled further. "Friends talk to each other."

"You know what?" Jesse was saying now, looking at Beca directly. "Why don't you hazard a guess?"

"What?" Beca replied in surprise.

"Go on," Jesse prompted. "Take a wild guess why I've been pissed off these couple of weeks."

Beca worked her jaw, a little lost now on what she should say. She hadn't seen this Jesse before. He was not full blown angry - he was, as he described, pissed off and it showed on his face. It slightly unnerved her. She was used to smily, charming Jesse.

"Ok..." Beca flailed about with a guess. "Is it Sara? Are you having problems with her? Because you know, if it's about women, I can help you there."

Jesse stared at her and then, his shoulders slumped a little. "Is that what you think it was? You think I'm upset because of Sara?"

"I don't know, dude. I'm just guessing," Beca started and then she remembered her earlier encounter with the blonde. "Umm..Please don't kill me but I think I might have pissed your girlfriend off just now."

Jesse's head whipped up and he eyed her warily. "What? What did you do?"

"I met Sara downstairs and we got talking. I thought she knew who I was but that is stupid, right? I only met her for five minutes," Beca nervously explained. "She thought my name was Becky. When I corrected her, she just went into this... umm..episode?"

Jesse kept silent and Beca felt compelled to explain further.

"She started talking about the stuff we did. Y'know, the date, that time when I was drunk at your place, all that stuff. The texting. I don't know. I think I've might have got you into trouble. That was the other reason why I was looking for you. She's raring for a fight, dude. I needed to warn you."

Jesse sighed.

"Sara knew about you. It was one of those things we've talked about at length. But everything's fine now. She shouldn't be angry."

"Oh ok," Beca meekly replied. This was all very confusing. Sara was definitely angry just now. She had been afraid Sara might have gone on some jealous rage and now Jesse was saying everything was fine? They talked about it? She cleared her throat a little uncomfortably and spoke up. "Umm... So things are ok with Sara?"

"Yes, I've squared everything with her. It's all good."

"Ok..." Beca hesitated for a moment. "I supposed I should say congratulations then."

"What for?" Jesse said tiredly. All his alcoholic buzz must be gone by now and he was leaning against the wall, rubbing his face with one hand.

"Things are going great with you guys," Beca explained. "And Sara's moving in with you. That's bringing your relationship to the next level. It's a huge step. So- congratulations!"

'Beca, what the hell are you talking about?"

Beca's head snapped up at the bellow from Jesse. He was staring at her. Surprise was too mild a term to describe the look on Jesse's and Beca couldn't help feeling she did something terribly, terribly wrong.

"Umm.. You and Sara moving in together, " she stuttered. "She said that you were? Her apartment's too small and something about your place being a great place to start a family?"

"What?! She said that?"

"Ermmm...yes?" Beca replied unsure now. "She definitely said something about you guys moving in. Oh shit! I'm supposed to keep it on the down low because it's not official." She nervously tucked her hair behind her ear, convinced that she did something wrong now. "Umm...That bit about starting a family is implied though. She just told me to watch this space. Sorry, after that, it got a bit hazy because she started getting a little worked up."

Jesse was already at the door.

"Dude, are you ok?" Beca called out, more than a little worried now.

"I need to get out of here and talk to Sara. What had gotten into her?" Jesse grunted in between rattling the doorknob and shoving himself against the door. " If she's going round saying all that shit to everyone - Fuck! What is wrong with this door?!"

"Jesse, calm down," Beca hastily, which was the wrong thing to say. Jesse got more riled up than ever and Beca swore if she didn't do something, he was going to karate kick that solid door down and hurt himself.

"Jesse, listen to me!" Beca said, tugging at his shirt from the back. It didn't slow him down. In fact, he was taking a few steps back and Beca had to skitter back or he would walk into her. "Can you just calm - oh for fuck sake!"

Jesse ran up to the door. He was to about to smash through, breaking the hinges and be free from this toilet prison. Except, like Beca thought, that door was pretty solid and stupid Jesse Swanson bounced futilely against the wood, fell backwards and nearly brained himself against the sink.

"Jesse! Oh my god. Are you ok?" Beca yelled in fright.

She was sure she heard a crack when Jesse's head glanced off the sink. He was lying on his back on the floor, with his eyes closed. When he didn't answer, Beca immediately went down her knees, trying to recall whatever First Aid she could remember. Ok, it shouldn't be hard. It should be the same for kids and adults, right? She had to establish the person was conscious and breathing. Ok, he's breathing. That's good. But Jesse was still not responding.

"Jess, are you ok? Answer me!"

Jesse still looked like he was out cold. Will a slap be in order? Can she slap him? Will she cause a brain injury? Shit. She was not good at this. Beca peered into his face, panicking and in near tears now.

"Jess, wake up. You're fucking scaring me," she said, her hands on the sides of his head. "Please say something."

Oh god. He was going to die. He was going to die, stuck in this toilet and she couldn't get help. Beca immediately got up and started hammering the door, shouting for help at the top of her lungs. Then something occurred to her and Beca scrambled round, looking for her phone. She could still dial emergency services, right? Even if there was no reception, her call should go through.

"Please don't die. Please don't die," Beca muttered as she shakily tried typing in her passcode into her phone. "God, please don't let him die. I swear I'll take those after school clubs Principal Geller been trying to drop on me if you don't let him die."

She was about to dial emergency services when she heard a sharp intake of breath behind her and Jesse calling her name.

"Bec?"

Beca whirled round so fast and found Jesse's eyes were open. He regained consciousness and was blinking slowly up at her. He was also trying to get up.

"Dude, don't move!"

Beca hastily went down, trying to press him back to the floor and not move. It could exacerbate whatever injury he had but Jesse was already trying to stand, pulling himself up with one hand on the sink. He nearly toppled backwards, still giddy and Beca hurriedly propped him up and helped him sit at the edge of the bath tub.

"My head," Jesse groaned. "What happened?"

"Man vs. Door," Beca deadpanned. "Door won."

When he didn't laughed at her lame joke, Beca knew he was hurt. Jesse had a grimace on his face and his fingers were gingerly probing a sore spot on the back of his head. Beca took one look at it, got up, took a washcloth hanging off the rail and ran it under cold water. She hunkered back down next to Jesse.

"Here, let me do it," she said softly, carefully placing the cold towel on that sore spot on his head. Jesse groaned out in relief, shutting his eyes. He moved his hand over hers to press the towel harder into the spot.

"That felt good?" Beca asked.

Jesse nodded.

"You fell backwards and hit the sink on the way down," Beca explained. "Out cold like someone knocked you out."

"I was out cold?" Jesse asked. "For how long?"

 _It felt like hours_ \- she wanted to say.

"A few minutes," Beca said instead. "But that's still dangerous, right? You should get your head checked. And -" Beca removed the towel and peered closer at the spot. "- you have a spectacular lump there, my friend."

She got up to wet the towel again and then took her place next to him. Jesse was staring at various things around the room before focusing back on Beca.

"I'm ok, actually," he said, letting Beca press the towel against his head. "My speech's clear and I'm making sense, right?" He was squinting at Beca's face. "And my vision's definitely ok."

"Just get it checked," Beca chided him.

"Why?" Jesse mumbled. "Are you worried?"

She felt a flush rushing up her neck and as usual, when Beca was cornered, she went into defensive mode.

"What? No!" she flustered. "Dude, it's your head. If you want to go round having a dent back there -"

"You said there's a lump -"

"Dent. Lump. Whatever. Go round with your funny shaped head. I don't care -"

"But you do," Jesse insisted. "I overheard you bargaining for my life just now. Something about taking some after school clubs -"

He heard that? He was supposed to be out cold! Beca was about to whip that towel hard against him. She didn't care if that hurt but Jesse grabbed her hand. She tried pulling her hand free but he held fast. And he was staring at her. And their faces inches away.

"You were worried," he stated simply.

"Of course I was! I felt responsible, OK?" Beca said a little crossly. "I don't know what I did in my previous life to have all these weird things happening. You must think I'm jinxed."

"No, I don't," Jesse answered. He still hadn't let go of her hand.

"Dude, I've been nothing but bad luck to you since we met -"

"Why would you think that?" he replied. "When I first saw you at that restaurant, I thought I was the luckiest man alive. And you know what? I think I still am. Yeah, ok, we had a lot of stupid things happened to us; but I've got to be friends with this hot, amazing girl who incidentally makes great cold compresses. Why would you think you're bad luck?"

She couldn't suppress that smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Wow, you hit your head a lot harder than I thought," Beca joked. She smiled a little ruefully at him. "I still feel responsible though. If I hadn't blurt out about you and Sara -"

"I broke up with Sara last week."

Wait. Did she hear that right? Was her hearing ok? Did he just said -

"You broke up?" Beca stuttered. "But why did she say you're moving in together -"

"I don't know and right now, I don't really care," Jesse shrugged. "We broke up. As far as break-ups go, it wasn't so bad. We both know it wasn't working."

Beca was struck dumb, still trying to process this new information.

"I've been wanting to tell you the whole of last week but you didn't return my texts." Jesse continued. He looked down and gave an embarrassed chuckle. "The strange thing is...I was more upset about you not returning my texts than breaking up with Sara."

"Wh.." Beca cleared her throat. "Why is that?"

Jesse looked up. "Hazard a guess."

Beca couldn't. Because she was finding it hard to speak. She also didn't trust herself to say anything remotely coherent right now. All she could think of was how close he was. How gorgeous his eyes looked. How low and velvet soft his voice was. How warm his hand holding hers. Beca stared at their hands intertwined between them. Her hand looked like it belonged in his.

"Do you know one of the reasons why I broke up with Sara?" he asked.

She raised her eyes to meet his. Jesse never looked more serious than he was right now.

"She doesn't like rollercoasters," he whispered.

And then he leaned forward and closed the gap between them with hot, searing kiss.

* * *

AN : _Of course they would kissed. Only what should happen next?_

A. The jinx will go on. Jesse accidentally bit Beca's lip. Chloe, Stacie and Benji finally opened the door to find Beca covered in blood and murder in her eyes and Jesse trying to apologise profusely.

B. Oh come on, Nora! Let them get it on already and have awkward bathroom sex. Benji will never look at his sink the same way again.

or C. Let's just eat cookies. Cookies are awesome.


	9. Getting hot in here

**Author's note :**

 _This one for dem hood girls! Dem good girls, straight masterpieces_

#jecasquad. Thank you for voting and Merry Chrisfmas

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

"Should we rescue them now?"

Stacie and Chloe were lounging in the living room with Benji, slumped on his yellow squashy sofa. The redhead was the one asking the question but the other two didn't immediately reply. Stacie was busy taking a pull from a joint before passing it on to Benji. She blew the smoke out slowly, fascinated by the curls and swirls, and it took some time for Chloe's question to filter through.

"What do you think, Benji?" Stacie asked lazily. She was grinning at the thought of Jesse and Beca trapped together.

"Nah..." Benji replied, handing the joint back to Chloe. "Let's leave it a while longer." He was feeling extremely chilled right now. The party was still raging around them but he was now in a state of calm acceptance that yes, his house was going to be trashed; yes, the clean up afterwards was going to be painful. So be it. The party would wind down sooner or later. He was just going to sit here and enjoy himself.

"Think they killed each other by now?" Benji asked.

"Either that. Or they are humping each other hard against the door," Stacie remarked.

It wasn't particularly funny what she but the remark triggered fits of giggles amongst them. They were laughing so hard Stacie nearly missed the sound of her phone ringing.

"Must be Aubrey. I forget to give her an update - " Stacie said, picking up the call. " Hey Bree! Sorry I didn't call. Nothing to report. Beca's still -"

"Stacie?

* * *

His lips were soft.

Yep. She remembered them being this soft. And pliant and sweet. But Beca didn't remember them being this insistent. This sensual. This freaking delicious. When he parted his lips for more, hers followed. And as if it was not enough that his mouth was doing all sorts of things to her mouth that was making Beca all tingly and fuzzy, he tasted fucking incredible.

Tequila.

He tasted of tequila. Like the last time she kissed him.

And lime.

Somehow Beca could still taste the lime he spat out just now. The one that hit her in the eye which meant they had to search for an eyewash. That led them to this bathroom where they were trapped because of a dodgy door. And now here she was, perched at the edge of Benji Applebaum's bathtub, kissing Jesse Swanson.

Wait.

She was kissing Jesse Swanson.

Beca drew back, breaking the kiss. Jesse thought she was probably taking a breather because humans needed unnecessary things like oxygen. "Oh my god," he heard Beca saying. "What am I doing?"

Ok. That didn't sound good.

Jesse hastily opened his eyes and Beca's face swam into view. She looked stunned. Not exactly the kind of look you wanted from a girl you had been kissing for the past few minutes. But she was still in his arms and Jesse instinctively leaned forward to continue the kiss.

"Bec -" Jesse whispered, kissing her lightly at the corner of her mouth. She turned slightly to kiss him back on his lips and Jesse swore he felt electricity crackling around him. He was about to firmly draw her nearer when he felt her moving. She was trying to stand up.

"No no no no. -" Jesse protested but Beca was already on her feet and Jesse found himself falling forwards straight into the bath. Good thing his reflexes was quick enough to stop himself from falling head-along. He didn't need another hit on his head tonight. Once he righted himself, Jesse looked up to find Beca standing by the sink, facing him. Her hands over her mouth and she looked absolutely horrified.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod," Beca was muttering from behind her hands. "What have I done? I kissed you."

The shock was clear on her face and Jesse felt awful all of the sudden. He read her wrong. How could he be so stupid? She didn't want this. He had literally forced himself on her.

"I'm sorry," Jesse apologised, slowly getting up to his feet. Beca was probably freaking out right now and he did not want to spook her. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have -"

"No - " Beca replied, lowering her hands from her mouth, her blue eyes staring up at him. "I really wanted you to."

She raised herself on her tiptoes, grabbed his head in her tiny, warm hands and pressed her lips against his again. Jesse didn't lose any time wrapping his arms around her. She was so tiny and sexy and so so soft. He wanted her to be closer. Even pressing her body against him like this didn't seem to be close enough.

"Oh my god," Beca broke off again. "What am I doing?"

"Shh, baby," Jesse hushed her, trying to find her lips again.

"Jesse, I can't. This is wrong.,You just got out of a relationship ," Beca was saying now. "You're not thinking straight -"

"Never been so sure in my entire life -" he mumbled, kissing her temple and down the side of her face. Why was everything about her so soft?

"Jess, we shouldn't. I -" Beca started but she groaned out in frustration and found his lips again. "God, you are so fucking amazing," she whispered in between her kisses.

"So are you," he murmured back.

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore," she breathed into his ear.

"I do," Jesse answered. "I've been wanting to kiss you since forever -"

His mouth was on her neck now and he must have hit a sensitive spot because Beca hissed and her hands clutched tightly into his arms. Just hearing that sexy hiss and feeling her nails digging into his skin was enough to make his knees go weak. Jesse wanted to hear more and he gently bit into that selfsame spot. This time she arched against him, her hand pressing his head closer into her neck. Her lips were next to his ear and he could hear the catch in her breath as he nibbled on her skin.

His hands were resting on her ribcage and Jesse grabbed her tight with both hands. She weighed almost nothing. It was easy for him to lift her up to rest at the edge of the sink. Jesse pressed forward, wanting to kiss more of her neck. Her chest. Her everything -

"Wait. Wait -" Beca was saying now. But Jesse's head was in too much of a lusty fog for the warning to come through. It was not until Beca fell backwards with a slight scream that Jesse reared back and discovered what he had done.

Oh god, no.

This could not be happening.

"What the hell?" Beca cried out.

Jesse couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe what he had actually done. They were kissing, things were heating up and he had picked her up and perched her at the edge of the sink. And in his haste and extreme horniness, he had lunged forward and pushed her backwards into the sink. And now Beca Mitchell was wedged in. Her cute little butt was wedged in, stuck in the sink. He stood there, frozen and far too mortified to do anything. What level of stupidity was he up to now? It must somewhere up there at 100% village idiot. Beca was struggling to get free, her feet flailing futilely in the air

"Dude!" Beca said, waving her hands. "A little help?"

"Oh. Sorry!" Jesse apologised, finally springing into action.

He tried tugging her free by her hands. That didn't work. This time he wrapped his arms round her and with a sharp pull forward, he managed to lift her out. Jesse lowered her down to the floor, silently cursing himself. He totally ruined the moment and now he was now feeling slightly nauseous. Great. Just great. It would be the icing on this disaster cake if he threw up all over her yet again. Jesse swallowed a lungful of air to calm his nerves.

"Are you ok?" he croaked out. "I"m so sorry."

Why did he sound like a broken record? Jesse wouldn't be surprised if Beca told him to shut up. But she didn't. She was actually shaking her head a little ruefully, occupied with rubbing the small of her back.

"What's wrong?" Jesse piped up.

"I think the taps hurt my back." Beca fretted. When she twisted her torso, Beca visibly winced.

"Is it sore?" Jesse asked. "Do you want me to take a look?"

His hands were already on her waist and turning her around. _Trust him to go all paramedic on her_ \- Beca thought - _it was really sweet of him to be so concerned. If only he didn't cause half of the injuries she sustained_. Jesse knelt down behind her. Beca felt him raising the hem of her tshirt and she might as well co-operate, so Beca held up her shirt so Jesse could take a better look. His fingers were gently probing her lower back.

"No broken skin. Just a little red -" he said from behind.

"It feels sore," Beca sighed. "I'm going to bruise."

"I don't think you will," Jesse answered. "I don't know. I just might have to -"

He went silent and then Beca felt his warm lips pressed on her skin.

* * *

"Stacie?" the voice crackled again in her ear.

It took several seconds for Stacie to register that it was not Aubrey on the line. It was also not a female voice. It was a male voice with a distinct British she recognised and if she had any doubt -

"Hey, it's Luke here," the voice crackled on. "Have you heard from Beca?'

Oh. Fuck.

"Hey Luke!" Stacie replied. "No, I haven't heard from Beca. What's wrong?"

She sounded upbeat when speaking to Luke but Stacie was hastily sitting up and slapping Chloe's knee to get the redhead's attention. Chloe was still in a haze but when Stacie frantically mouthed the word "Luke" and pointed at her phone, Chloe worked out who was on the line and she began to panic.

"I'm trying to get through to Beca -" Luke was saying. "- and she's not picking up her phone."

"Oh. That's strange," Stacie replied, still sounding chipper. Benji and Chloe was staring at her, hanging on to her every word. "Sometimes the reception's bad? Have you tried again?"

"Yes, plenty of times," Luke answered. "It goes straight to voicemail."

"I haven't seen her all evening." Stacie lied through her teeth. She gave a thumbs up to Chloe and Benji. Yeah, she got this handled. She can lie like a champ.

"Ok. It's just that she wasn't feeling well and asked me to pick her up from this party. I'm outside the house now."

"You are outside?" Stacie squeaked, colour draining from her face.

"Yes and the party looks pretty wild. Beca might be in trouble. Hang on -"

Luke disappeared from the other line. Stacie rested her phone on her perky chest and whisper-yelled at Chloe. "Luke's right outside!"

"What?" Chloe exclaimed. "He's right outside?"

"Who's right outside?" Benji chimed in, confused.

"Luke. Beca's boyfriend," Stacie replied, wiping her brow in panic. "This is not good."

"Why?" Benji asked. "What's the matter?"

"Because he's a policeman!" Stacie replied. "He's off duty by now but he's standing right outside what looks like a frat party. We have alcohol and weed and possibly minors. He is already convinced Beca is in trouble -"

"Shiiiiiit," Benji whistled out.

"What are we going to do?" Chloe said, eyes huge with panic.

"Stacie?" - Luke's voice came out of her phone.

"Yes?" Stacie answered, her voice a little too shrill.

"I don't like the look of this party," Luke was saying. "There's a few drunks out here who don't look 21 and someone destroying private property -"

"- that could be Bumper -"

"- Beca's somewhere inside -" Luke continued. " -and she might be hurt. I'm going call for back-up -"

"Wait wait wait!" Stacie yelled out, jumping up from the sofa. "I'm coming out."

"You're here?" Luke asked, sounding surprised. "You're at the same party?"

"Yes, and Chloe too," Stacie hastily answered. "Hang on. I'm coming out. I haven't seen Beca for the past hour but I'm sure she's safe somewhere. We can look for her together, OK? Just don't do anything hasty."

Stacie waited for the gruff "ok" from Luke before she cut the call and turned to her other two conspirators on the sofa. "Guys, quick! You have to get those two out. I'll stall Luke as long as possible."

* * *

Ok, having her butt stuck in the sink just now had been a mood killer.

They were having this hot make out session and of course, something stupid had to happen. Beca was not even mad. It figured. Stupid things always happened to them. It did, however, put a brake to all that sexiness. However, Beca underestimated this hot, sexy firefighter behind her. The bastard was a smooth as fuck. And now with Jesse slowly kissing up her back? Like she was some sex goddess and he was reverently worshiping every inch of her? Yeah, things were getting back on track.

Beca stifled a sigh as she felt him raining more kisses. Who knew the skin on her lower back was just as sensitive as her neck? It was making her shudder. He must have felt her quivering since now she can feel his lips smiling against her skin.

"Did I kiss it better?" Jesse asked innocently.

"Shut up. Who asked you to stop?" came the churlish reply.

"You're not mad at me?" Jesse asked. She could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"I will be if you stop," Beca threatened.

Jesse proved he was good at following orders because he was rising to his feet, slowly kissing her up her back. His hands ran up her ribcage, raising her shirt inch by inch, until Beca snorted impatiently, pulled her tshirt free and tossed it onto the floor. She could hear Jesse grunting at her bold move. Beca didn't know exactly what came over her. She didn't usually whipped her top off like this but what the hell. She was hot and bothered and definitely horny and when Jesse pressed himself into her back, there was no doubt he wanted her just as badly too.

He was peppering kisses on the floral tattoo on her shoulder, his mouth roving over her right shoulder and up her neck. "What are you doing to me?" Beca heard him groaned into her ear. She turned her head slightly, teeth grazing against his jaw. His hand was tangled in her hair and Jesse lightly pulled her head back by her hair so he could kissed her full on the mouth.

Jesse broke the kiss first.

Because he wanted to turn her round.

While her bare back was sexy as hell, he really, really wanted to see the view from the front. It didn't disappoint. She was staring up at him, her dark hair framing her pale face. Pink sweet lips, swollen with his kisses, eyes dark blue. Topless except for that lacy black bra, barely holding back the most perfect breasts he had ever seen.

Jesse let out a gust of air as he looked down.

He wanted to touch them straightaway. Was that creepy? Will she break his fingers one by one if he dared to do that? This was unchartered territory. The last time he had been this close she was blind drunk and fell asleep against him. He decided to kiss her again and when he felt her arms snaking round his neck pulling him closer, Jesse tentatively ran his hand upwards to cup her full breast.

He sighed.

It was perfect. Heavy, soft and filled his hand to the brim. He gave it a light squeeze and when Beca didn't draw back, Jesse grew a little bolder and squeezed it a little harder. And when his thumb swiped across the hardened nipple outlined against the satin fabric, Beca started to moan into his mouth, pressing herself into his hand.

It was like a switch flipped in his brain.

He tried to be tentative. Careful even. He tried to be gentle. But oh god, that sound coming out of her. That dirty, sexy little sound deep in her throat, coupled with the feel of her warm, heavy breast in his hand.

Jesse's hands tugged at her lacy bra. He was too impatient to fumble with the catch behind and pushed the cups down instead, freeing her beautiful breasts. He picked her up again, this time pressing Beca up the wall.. He had her pinned, his mouth on her neck, her chest and finally, finally his mouth found her breasts.

Beca didn't know what immediately came over Jesse but she was not complaining. Like he said, there were worst places to be stuck. And being in this small private space, making out with this hot fireman whom she had a crush on for ages was definitely one of the better ones. Beca pulled his head closer into her breasts. Jesse could do anything to them. Because his mouth? It was magic. Sharp teeth, soft tongue and the indecent way it pulling and tugging at her nipples. Beca was getting seriously turned on.

She needed more now.

She released her hold on Jesse's neck, her hands now pulling up his tshirt. The shirt was bunched under his arms but Jesse was still too enthralled with her breasts. She had to forcibly pull his head back and even then, it took a few moments for Jesse to stop playing with her boobs and helped her take off his tshirt.

It was Beca's turn to huff out loud now.

Because damn, his abs.

Nice.

Very, very nice.

She had seen pictures, of course but the real thing was on another level. Beca ran her hands over them, the pads of her fingers smoothing over the hard muscles. His six pack twitched under her touch and she looked up to find Jesse staring down at her. Their eyes met and his hand went up to gently stroke the side of her face before he leaned in to kiss her again. Her hands travelled down to his belt, deftly undoing the buckle. She was about to unzip his jeans when Beca felt his hands stopping hers and Jesse pulled back from the kiss.

"Beca, don't," he whispered hoarsely next to her ear . "If you do that, I don't... I don't think I can stop."

"You want to stop?" Beca whispered back, feeling a different type of flush creeping up her neck.

"No -" he groaned, almost painfully. "Is..is this what you really want?"

* * *

"I feel sick."

Chloe turned round to find Benji had stopped a few steps behind her. Stacie had galvanised them as quick as she can. The brunette was supposed to meet Luke outside and keep him occupied whilst Chloe and Benji 'rescue' Beca and Jesse from the bathroom. Chloe was already charging ahead, up the stairs but it seemed Benji was trailing behind. He also looked a little green.

"Benji, you ok?" the redhead called out over her shoulder.

"No..." Benji mumbled, clutching his stomach with one hand whilst holding on to the bannister with another. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Oh Benji, this is not the time!'" Chloe wailed but she took several steps back to check on him. "What's wrong with you?"

"I dunno -" he mumbled back. "Maybe it's the pot."

"Stacie and I had some. We're fine."

"That was my first -"

"What?!" Chloe squealed. "You never smoked pot before?"

Benji nodded and this time he sank down to sit on the stairs. Chloe hunkered down, trying to keep calm. No use panicking. It was not as if they had Beca trapped in a small confined space with a hot fireman and both of them had a boner for each other. Or Beca's jealous boyfriend was currently outside looking for her. No. Nothing to panic about. At all.

"Do you want some water?" Chloe asked worriedly. She stretched up towards a nearby table, grabbing what looked like a white helmet, upended it and shoved into Benji's hands."Here. Just in case you feel sick."

Benji looked down at what Chloe handed to him.

"My stormtrooper helmet -" he groaned mournfully before promptly throwing up into it. Chloe tried not to let nausea get to her as Benji emptied the contents of his stomach. She gingerly patted his back, looking away.

"Ok. I'm fine now," Benji remarked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand once he finished. "Let's get them out of the bathroom."

"Are you sure?" Chloe said. She thought Benji still looked awful. "Maybe you should sit here for a while. I'll go and let them out."

"I've got to do it," Benji answered. "The door on that second floor bathroom is a bit temperamental. I wanted to make sure Beca and Jesse can't open it easily it so I jammed it pretty tight. You need to -"

"The bathroom!?"

The voice bellowed down from above and both Chloe and Benji looked up. Towering above them, like a pissed off blonde Amazon bent on revenge, was Sara.

"The bathroom?" the blonde repeated, looking slightly crazy round the eyes and strangely triumphant. "Is that where Jesse's been hiding?!"

* * *

His hands were on top of hers, stopping her from going further.

Beca was blushing furiously now, unsure what Jesse was getting at. She thought things were going well. She was standing in front of him, nearly topless, for fuck's sake. Did she got it all wrong? Sensing her worry, Jesse cradled her face in both his hands, tilting her head to look directly at him.

"Hey, I just want to make sure you are OK with this," he said softly. "I am so horny for you right now and trust me, it's taking a lot of my self control not to tear your panties off. But we're in Benji's bathroom, it's our first time, I'm happy to just make out -"

"Stop talking," Beca ordered, leaning up to capture that adorable lips of his. She yanked his zip down. Jesse flinched a little before letting out a grateful groan. Beca's knuckles brushed against his hard on and he couldn't stop that shudder if he wanted to. Her tiny hand slipped into his briefs, closing round his shaft and sliding down slowly.

This time it was Beca who drew back.

Because holy smoke, what did she just felt?

Beca looked down at what she was holding and her eyes widened in surprise. It was a little dim in the bathroom but she could clearly see what she held in her hand. Jesse was hard. Rock hard. Granite level rock hard. Which was good. And umm...so very blessed? So very, very blessed. She could hold his dick with both hands stacked on top of each other and still have plenty spare. Her surprise must have shown because Jesse looked a little embarrassed now.

"Yeah. About that -" he chuckled nervously.

"Dude," Beca breathed out finally, sounding impressed. Jesse visibly relaxed at the awestruck look on Beca's face.

"Well, you know what they said about firemen -" Jesse shrugged, trying not to come across too smug. "We've got the longest hose."

"Really? They said that?" Beca smirked back. She ran her thumb up the front of his shaft and then over his sensitive head. Jesse immediately groaned, his eyes falling shut.

"Well, Mr. Fireman, roll out some more of that hose," she whispered naughtily, hand sliding up and down faster along his shaft. "You are nowhere near the fire."

Jesse's hands were already pushing up her skirt, skidding up her thighs. His mouth was on her neck, teeth nipping into her flesh and then his fingers found her sex. "You're so wet," Jesse groaned into her neck.

Beca couldn't answer.

Because the tips of his fingers were making these small, delicious circles on her soaked panties, on top of her bundles of nerves and when Jesse's fingers finally slipped in between her flesh and panties, Beca grunted out with pleasure. It was so unladylike to grunt out loud like that. But who has time to be ladylike now? Not when this guy with the talented mouth was running his fingers up and down her wet folds, teasingly slid one finger, then two into her and his thumb, catching on her clit. And his dick was, if it was ever, ever possible, getting harder in her hand.

Shit.

She needed to feel that hard on against her now. Beca hastily tried to push his jeans down but Jesse had other ideas. He was kissing down her body but she stopped him when his mouth was licking her firm tummy.

"No," Beca said. "I want you now."

"Now?" Jesse asked, staring up at her.

"Now. Right now," she ordered. "And rough. I want it rough."

"Rough?" Jesse echoed, looking slightly shellshocked. "You want it rough?"

"Jesse!" Beca pleaded impatiently.

She was on the edge. She didn't need a parrot. She needed this man to use that wonderful dick he was blessed with on her. Several times. At least. This sexual tension building up between them needed out and fucking hell, she wanted it hard and rough and fast and dirty. Jesse heard the urgency in her plea and his eyes darkened.

He raised himself up and kept eye contact as his teeth closed on her deep pink nipple Jesse bit down gently. Beca moaned but held his gaze. This time his hand clamped hard over one breast and he bit and licked and nipped all over her flesh, eyes still locked on hers. It was so intense that Beca's head fell back, her throat making all these inhuman noises she couldn't describe. His mouth tugged at her nipple again and the tip of his tongue lapped over the puckered nipple, soothing the hard bite.

"Rough enough for you?" he asked.

"Spank me." Beca gasped, tugging his hair hard. "Over the sink. Spank my ass over the sink, Jesse."

He didn't need asking twice. Jesse bent Beca's pliant body over the sink and she braced herself. The first one stung. The crack of his palm on her flesh was loud and it hurt. It hurt so good. Another one landed on her other cheek and then Beca grunted when she felt Jesse's fingers digging hard into her flesh, his hand squeezing her ass. He let go and she felt him roughly parting her legs, reaching for her aching sex and this time, his fingers slid inside so rough and hard and fast she could hardly draw a breath.

She felt herself building towards the crest.

Fuck, she was so noisy at this point that Jesse had to cover her mouth with his free hand. Beca felt like screaming. The relentless way his hand was moving, the feel of his palm against her mouth, muffling her cries. It was so fucking sexy. Jesse removed his hand from her mouth and grabbed her by the hair on her nape. She arched backwards and he leaned down to kiss her roughly, silencing her moans.

Jesse pulled her flushed, heated body against him. His hand snaked round to her front, fingers hooking into her, slipping in, hitting all the nerves inside her. His thumb ghosted over her clit and then rubbed it and Beca's legs were shaking uncontrollably. Her breaths were coming out in loud, staccato pants. And when Jesse squeezed one breast, fingers rolling her nipple hard, Beca cried out with pleasure.

"You like that?" Jesse whispered, tugging her nipple again. Beca responded with another moan. She was already rubbing faster against his hand.

"That's it, baby," Jesse purred. Beca place her hand over his, pressing it harder into her. His lips were millimetres from hers and Beca lunged up to nip on his pouty lower lip. She nibbled and bit and then she let go, eyes glittering up at him. Jesse smirked wolfishly and he kissed her again, the time his teeth caught her lower lip in between.

The crash coming from behind him was so unexpected.

So unexpected and loud.

So loud It made him jump.

Unfortunately, in his surprise and a reaction to the ear-splitting sound coming from behind him, Jesse's teeth clamped down. Hard. He tasted blood. And in a clear, heart sinking moment, Jesse knew it was not his.


	10. Is is goodbye?

**Chapter Nine**

It was not his blood he tasted.

Jesse knew that.

He also knew what he had done but at that point, his brain was on overdrive trying to process the many things that were happening right at that moment. The crash of the door being kicked opened, him stumbling forward and clamping his mouth down hard and Beca Mitchell's piercing scream of pain.

He bit her. He only fucking bit her on her lower lip.

Jesse hastily let go, stumbling back a step. Beca's face was pale and her hand flew up to her mouth. When she took her hand away, Beca looked in shock at the red smear of blood on her palm. It must have hurt. Oh god, it must have hurt so bad and Jesse could see her lower lip was starting to swell. He couldn't even began to articulate any words to say how sorry he was and as if that was not enough drama, he heard Sara screeching from behind.

"Jesse Swanson! You fucking cheater!"

Jesse spun round and it immediately became clear that, one, Sara must have kicked the door opened. She was looming in the doorway, face blotchy and red, absolutely spitting with rage. Two, he was topless, Beca was topless and they were clearly caught making out. And three, there was a crowd of onlookers peering from outside, eyes wide and mouths opened, enjoying this little show.

It must have taken Beca less time to process all this because Jesse could hear her swearing behind him. Beca was shoving him forward to get her hands on her top. One arm was trying to cover her bare breasts as she tried to reach her tshirt she had tossed on the floor. Jesse quickly scrambled forward, picking up hers and his tshirt. He offered it to Beca who snatched the top out of his hand and looking like she could murder someone at the moment. And all the while, Sara was screaming over and over.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Sara was screeching now. "So much for nothing's going on between you two, huh? How long has this been going on? I knew you've been cheating on me with that...that whore!"

"Don't call her that," Jesse spoke up automatically. At that moment, he didn't really care what Sara was shouting about. His main priority was to shield Beca as she desperately tried to pull her bra and skirt into place and pulled her top on, but he wouldn't allow Sara insulting Beca like that.

"I call her what I want!"'Sara screamed. "She's the slut that's trying to steal you from me!"

"Sara, we broke up like a week ago," Jesse answered back.

"No. No -" Sara was spitting out now. "We haven't broken up. We were on a break." She used air quotes for emphasis. "You were confused. You needed to step back to think things through. We are going to move in together, remember?"

"You're not making sense," Jesse argued back, shaking his head. "Why would I break up with you and ask you to move in?" Then he felt Beca brushing past and his hand immediately shot out to stop her. "Bec -"

"I gotta go -" Beca mumbled, tugging again his hold.

"Don't -" Jesse protested, tightening his hand on her arm. "Please. Don't go."

"But you said you love me, Jesse!" Sara interrupted, hysterical now. "And we should move in together."

"Sara, I said no such thing -"

"I'm pregnant!"

"What?!" Jesse and Beca said simultaneously. There was a moment of stunned silence before the onlooking crowd went "oohhhh" in unison. Everyone's eyes pinged back and forth between the three.

"Sara - " Jesse spoke up as calm as he could. "- are you saying you're pregnant?"

He didn't believe what Sara was saying for one moment. Sara's eyes were darting about wildly like she was cornered and there were conflicting emotions on her face.

"I could be!" she shouted, her face turning red.

"What do you mean you could be?" Jesse continued. "We had sex that one time. That one time. With protection. We were very careful. And I know you've been hooking up with Donald these past two months."

"It could still be yours!" Sara screamed back.

Beca had had enough.

"Ok, you guys figure out whatever...whatever this is," she said, pulling her am free from Jesse's grasp. "I can't...I can't be here right now."

She hurried out out of the bathroom, squeezing past the blonde who was frothing at the mouth. Jesse was calling out to her and Sara was screeching at Beca's retreating back.

"Where you think you're going, bitch? Come back here, you slut. I'm going to hit you so hard -"

Beca vaguely heard Jesse saying something to Sara but she didn't wait any longer. She rushed off, blindly pushing through the crowd. She had never felt so embarrassed, so mortified in her life. Even the viral video with her face caked with vomit was not as humiliating as this. Everyone was watching the whole thing unfold. Everyone saw her boobs. Everyone heard Sara screaming what a slut she was. She was heading towards the stairs when Beca felt someone stopping her and Chloe's voice penetrated through this shameful fog on her brain.

"Beca, oh my god! What did she do to you?" Chloe was saying.

"What?" Beca replied, momentarily confused. She blinked at Chloe. The redhead had her mouth opened and she was holding Beca by her forearms.

"Your mouth! It's bleeding badly'" Chloe gasped. "Look! Your top is all bloody."

Beca belatedly realised the cut on her lower lip must have not closed yet. She could actually taste the metallic tang of blood now and shit, Chloe was right. Her top was ruined.

""Did Sara hit you? Oh my god, she's fucking insane!" Chloe shrieked, shaking Beca a little. "I'm so sorry! We tried to stop her from opening the bathroom door. We were about to let both you out because Luke is already outside. Benji was sick and Sara overheard us talking about you and Jesse in the bathroom. She just ran ahead and I couldn't stop her. She got freakish long strides -"

Beca just gaped at Chloe's verbal vomit. The redhead was talking a mile a minute and Beca was caught between fleeing from the drama behind her and processing what Chloe was saying. She spied Benji standing by the staircase, looking rather green and holding a stormtrooper helmet? That's weird - Beca thought hazily - Benji's holding it the wrong way

Then it hit her.

"Wait. - " Beca interrupted Chloe in mid flow. What Chloe was saying filtered through. "You KNEW Jesse and I were trapped in the toilet?"

Chloe suddenly realised she let the cat out of the bag.

"Erm..."

"All this while?"

"Ermmmm..."

"Chloe!" Beca hissed angrily.

The commotion behind them rose exponentially in volume. Jesse was still arguing with Sara but instead of arguing back, Sara was now screaming insults about Beca. Increasingly hairy, rude insults. She was working herself up and before they knew it -

"Shit!" Chloe swore, seeing the blonde rushing towards them. "Beca. Run!"

Beca didn't wait. She flew down the stairs and Chloe, in a stupid, brave move to protect her friend, tried running towards Sara to stop the blonde. Only to have Sara neatly clotheslined her to the floor.

"Benji!" Chloe managed to gasp. "Stop her!"

Benji was watching the commotion from the top of the stairs. He heard Jesse arguing with Sara. Beca just ran past him, her top bloodied and mumbling sorry as she rushed past. He saw Chloe, red curls flying, valiantly trying to stop that blonde tank of a woman. And now the said tank was heading straight towards him. Benji glanced down at the ruined stormtrooper helmet he still held in his hands and then up at Sara who was a few feet away.

"Hey! Sara!" Benji yelled at the top of his voice. "Catch!"

And he let that helmet fly.

* * *

"As I said, nothing to worry about," Stacie said, using her most persuasive voice. "Look, it's just a regular party."

Stacie had rushed outside to find Luke, standing on the kerb some distance away next to his car, eyeing the house suspiciously. It was down to her to keep the jealous boyfriend and cop at bay while Chloe and Benji rescued the two trapped in the bathroom. Stacie was, of course, oblivious to the drama unfolding inside.

"I don't know, Stacie," Luke was saying. "That guy over there just trampolined from the roof."

"That's just Bumper getting some cardio done," Stacie tried to make light of the situation. Seriously, Bumper jumping up and down in just his boxers, yelling "Go Huskers!" was not helping her case one bit.

"And those guys throwing up?" Luke said, pointing to some guys vomiting noisily onto Benji's lawn.

"Probably bad tacos or something."

"Whole party looks pretty wild. I'm going to call the guys -"

"No no -" Stacie protested. "No need to call the guys -"

Luke then seemed to catch a whiff of something. He leaned forward and sniffed again carefully, staring at Stacie. "Have you been smoking weed?"

Stacie kept a straight face.

"Pfftt. Of course not," she lied expertly. "Look, I know the guys who threw the party. Bunch of firefighters. Upright pillars of the community. They won't do anything illegal, right?"

Luke clearly didn't believe her.

"I'm going to call for back-up," he said, reaching for his phone and dialling a number. He stared at Stacie as the call beeped through. "All I'm saying we'd better get Beca and Chloe out of there if - hey, Tom?"

Stacie internally kicked herself. Shit. She failed big time. Stacie just hoped Chloe and Benji fared better than she did. Luke finished his call and was eyeing the house again, more resolutely this time.

"Well, looks like there's been a few noise complaints from the neighbours," he spoke up. "They've dispatched two cars. Should be here soon."

Ah. Fuck.

Stacie didn't quite know what to do now. Should she run screaming into the house to warn everyone? Maybe she should warn Benji first? Benji would be in so much trouble. Or maybe she just dash in and grab Chloe and Beca and they could get the hell outta there? It's not going to look good for a couple of teachers to be caught in this bust up. Stacie was still mulling over her options when she heard Luke speaking up.

"Oh. Hey, there's Beca."

He sounded slightly happier.

"Oh my god, what happened to her?"

Ok, now he sounded shocked.

"Why is she covered in blood?"

Right. He definitely sounded shocked. And angry. Furious even.

Wait. Beca is covered in blood?

"And who the fuck is that guy chasing after her?"

* * *

She needed to get out of here.

The last thing she needed right now was her ass whooped by a blonde giant. Beca was a scrappy fighter when cornered but she didn't want to take any chances. That crazy women might fold her into knots or karate chop her into pieces, and frankly, both options sounded painful. Beca faintly heard a loud thunk, followed by a pause, then a high pitched scream. Weirdly, loud whoops rose up from behind as she ran down the stairs but she wasn't going to stop to find out what it was. She had to get away from all that madness behind her.

Jesus H. Christ.

Chloe and Benji knew they were trapped in the toilet? And they didn't lift a finger to help? What kind of friends are they? And Chloe said Luke was outside? Luke was here. Outside. Her boyfriend whom she called just now to pick her up was outside. And all the while, she had been making out with Jesse and very nearly had sex with him. Even in her harried state, that thought made Beca cringed.

Maybe Sara was right. She was a slut. She was a skanky ass slut who steals other girls' boyfriends and cheats on hers. She really needed to get out here. The place was still thronging with people and it took forever to negotiate through the drunken, stoned crowd. Beca was at the hallway, almost out of the door, when she heard Jesse calling out to her from behind.

"Beca! Wait!" Jesse called again. "We need to talk."

No, she shouldn't stop. No matter how much she really wanted to. This was all a mistake.

"Beca, please."

Jesse caught up with her and his hand was on her shoulder. Damn her short legs! And she should really worked on her cardio. Beca tried to shrug off his hand but he held fast, his other hand now grabbing her upper arm and whirling her around.

"Oh God, you're bleeding," Jesse said in horror once Beca was facing him.

"Get your hands off me," Beca muttered thickly, her swollen lower lip making speech a little difficult.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry -"

Jesse broke off, cursing a little. He couldn't even keep count on how many times he said sorry this evening. Beca looked awful. Her lovely mouth discoloured, her top covered with flecks of blood like a Jackson Pollock painting. She looked hurt and angry and it was all totally his fault.

"We need to get you some ice," Jesse said. "Your mouth -"

"Go back to your girlfriend," Beca replied, trying to struggle free from his hands. He clamped his hands harder into her arms.

"Bec, I'm not lying to you. I broke up with Sara. She's not my girlfriend," Jesse said. "Both her and Donald had been all over each other these couple of months. I was stupid. I should've ended it much sooner."

"You know what?" Beca answered. "I can't be bothered with all this drama -"

"She's not pregnant. Trust me," Jesse interrupted. "She was just saying that -"

"Dude! I'm not even talking about Sara. I'm talking about us!" Beca yelled. "This is not going to work."

Surprised by her yell, Jesse let Beca go. She stumbled back a little and cursed under her breath. That little yell made her lip bled again and Beca had raised the hem of her top to staunch her bleeding lip. Her top was ruined anyway. Watching her pressed her bloodied lip, Jesse was about to speak up, probably wanting to help, but Beca raised a hand to stop him.

"Jess, don't. Just don't," she mumbled into her tshirt. When she was sure the bleeding has stopped, she pulled down her shirt and looked up at Jesse. "Look, this is not going to work. Either I keep hurting you or something stupid like this happen to me."

"Bec -"

"No, Jesse!" Beca cried out in frustration. "This. Us -" She gestured between them. "We're not meant to be, ok? Maybe we should just accept this. It would make things much easier."

Jesse didn't say a word. He was just staring at her with those beautiful brown eyes and Beca had to swallow hard to stop herself from blubbering.

"I mean, you're a great guy. God, you're so great," Beca admitted, barely able to look at his face. "You've are an amazing friend and I - "

Shit. This was hard. She couldn't believe it was this hard. What was she doing exactly? Saying goodbye? Breaking up? They were not in a relationship. Could they break up without even being in one?

"Let's just forget we've ever met, ok?" Beca continued, struggling to keep that sad note out of her voice.

She liked him. She liked him a lot. She was falling more for him every single moment they were together but Beca was not sure it would be a good idea for them to be around each other.

"That time at the restaurant, that funfair, that pizza dinner, all those texting.," she said. "It was all a mistake. We shouldn't have even gone this far."

Beca realised that the hallway was quiet and many pairs of eyes were watching them. Great. Just great. That was why this was not going to work. It was like a fucking three ring circus every time. Beca slowly turned around and headed out of the door. Her feet felt like lead. Her heart even heavier. The crowd parted to let her through and she was out on the porch when she heard that bellow from behind her.

"No!"

Beca stopped in her tracks hearing Jesse's yell.

"No, Beca!"

Beca turned round to find Jesse running up and stopping short in front of her. It took a moment for Jesse to gather his thoughts but his stupid, gorgeous chocolate eyes never left her face.

"No, I can't," Jesse was saying now. "I can't let you walk out of my life, Beca. I just can't. For once, I am going to listen to my own fucking advice. I found someone perfect and I'm not letting her go."

"Jess -"

"No, listen," he interrupted. "I know all this weird shit happened. Weird, crazy shit and by all counts, we should stay away from each other. But don't you see it, Bec? Even if all these crazy stuff happening to us, I cannot think of anyone else I rather be with, except you."

"But you had a concussion -" Beca tried to reason.

"And I bit your lip until you bled-"

"I broke your nose -"

"And I threw up on you," Jesse said. "Beca, I threw. up. on. you. Still you came over to get drunk with me. You nearly brained me in the bathroom but we..., well, you know. Don't you see it? Good things never come easy, Beca. You worth it. Every hit I take, it was worth it because it was for you."

"Please don't do this," Beca said almost tearfully.

"Things made sense when I am with you. They just do," Jesse continued. "Do you remember what I said? One of the reasons I broke up with Sara because she didn't like roller coasters -"

"Yes," Beca said, sounding confused. "But that works for you, right? You're scared of them."

"Terrified," Jesse replied. "I'm fucking terrified of them. But when you're next to me, I wasn't remotely scared. I even forgot how I tend to throw up on them. I want to be as fearless as you. I wanted to face that roller coaster head on, with you. I work on that vomit thing, I promise."

"Jess -" Beca replied, trying to keep her tears down. Shit. Things were turning emotional. She was going to be a mess.

"Just kiss him already!" someone yelled to their right. Both Beca and Jesse turned to find it was Bumper yelling, his hands cupped round his mouth. Wait. Why was Bumper only in his boxer shorts and had "Huskers" scribbled on his chest? Then they heard sirens and saw blue and red flashing lights.

Shit. The police? The police was here?

Immediately there was a scramble. Party goers who were lounging on the porch, watching the little love confession and drunks alike found renewed urgency to pick up their ass and moved. Only Jesse and Beca seemed to be frozen, letting the mayhem circled round them. And out of the mayhem -

"Hey! Pal! What do you think you are doing?"

Oh fuck.

Beca recognised that voice and she slowly turned on her heels.

"Luke," Beca breathed out.

Her beefcake of the boyfriend was standing about ten yards away and was now walking towards them. Boy, did he looked mad. Jesse's attention swivelled to where Beca turned to and he visibly flinched when he heard Beca saying Luke's name.

"That's Luke?" he pointlessly said and Jesse realised he had mere seconds.

"Beca -" Jesse swiftly said, catching hold of her arm. "Remember what you said during that pizza dinner? About wanting someone to hold your hand when things get tough ?'"

"Yes." Beca nodded distractedly.

"I want that too," Jesse confessed. "I want to hold your hand, Beca. I want someone to drunk rapped at me and whoop my ass at video games to keep me on my toes. I want you, Beca."

Beca was staring at Jesse, speechless.

"What the fuck is happening here?" Luke swore.

He was beside them, trying to make sense of what he was seeing in front of him. His girlfriend had blood all over her front. This guy. What the fuck is happening? Why was this guy holding Beca's arm and they were both staring at each other like no one else existed in the world?

"Please tell me you want me too," the guy said.

"Jesse -" Beca breathed out.

Jesse?

JESSE?

This guy is Jesse?

And the last thing Jesse remembered was the punch to his jaw and being tackled to the ground by a six foot two, 220 pounds Englishman before he blacked out.

* * *

 _AN : Hapoy new year. Just one chapter left._


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 10**

"You ready?"

Jesse turned to find Beca sitting next to him. The fairground lights were popping and flashing and her cute face was red one moment, green the next and then yellow. But her smile. Her smile was so pretty that for a moment Jesse totally forgot he was strapped into this deathly contraption. Jesse nodded like an idiot and Beca's smile widened. Yeah, he'll do anything for that smile. Even ride this roller coaster.

As the coaster climbed up, he felt her small, warm hand slipped into his and Jesse squeezed it tight. He was being romantic, of course. He was not holding on to her hand for dear life because he was scared. No, he was not frightened. Pfftt! Why would he be? Although - fuck, this is high. Like really, really high. Why does the ground look so far away? Is the car tipping forward? Are they really going to...oooohhh shit -

Beca was screaming. He was screaming. Jesse was not sure whether it was a happy, delirious squeal because oh. my. god. Three loops? Three stomach churning loops where the sky and earth swapped places. That dinner, the popcorn and the cotton candy he ate just now were gurgling up. He tried to hold it down but Jesse couldn't stop it. It all spewed out of his mouth in an elegant arc towards Beca's smiling face.

Except it was not Beca.

It was the back of Sara's head.

Jesse heard Benji shouting "Catch" and a stormtrooper helmet was somersaulting through the air in slow motion, wet contents fanning out, before landing on Sara's face with a splat and the helmet into her arms with a loud thunk. Sara's scream merged with Beca's. And then Michell Pfeiffer was there, in a leather jacket and jeans. But she was not singing Cool Rider from Grease 2. There was Coolio rapping Gangsta Paradise instead with Luke looking broody and menacing beside him. Jesse knew he was going to get beaten up but he was sure if he could only rap back the right rhymes, Coolio would think he was cool and they would totally hang out.

Except he couldn't remember the damn words.

Ah what the fuck. He had to try. He had to -

"Dude, you up?"

What was that? Who was speaking to him? Why was it so dark? Jesse tried opening his eyes and immediately shut them back. The light felt like it was burning his retinas and what felt like a sledgehammer was bludgeoning his head repeatedly. Jesse groaned out on pain.

"Take it easy, dude. You had a nasty concussion."

The voice sounded vaguely familiar. It had an Australian accent and that slow, caustic couldn't be bothered vibe that could only mean...Amy? Amy was here? Why? He didn't remember seeing Amy at the party. She was not exactly easy to miss.

Oh.

The party.

It was coming back to him now. He was at Benji's party and there was Beca. Sara discovered them in the bathroom making out, there was a big scene and Beca was running off. Over his dead body he'll let Beca run out his life like that. So Jesse chased after her. He had to tell her how he felt and he did but of course, her beast of her boyfriend had to be there and ruined everything.

Jesse tried opening his eyes. Slowly this time. The room swum a little and then focused and Jesse found himself lying on a hospital bed. Amy was standing to one side, metal clipboard in hand. She had that bored on her face as she skimmed through the notes.

"Amy?" Jesse croaked. "Wh..what am I doing here?"

Amy looked up from the clipboard and briskly walked over. "How you feeling, bucko?" she asked, dropping the clipboard on Jesse's lap. "Wanna read your notes?"

Jesse picked up the clipboard and read his patient chart whilst Amy took his temperature and blood pressure.

"They sent a unit to bring me in?" he garbled, thermometer in his mouth.

"Yep," Amy confirmed. "Flashing lights, neck brace, gurney, the whole works. You were so out of it, dude. But I saw you kicking the ER nurse, straight in her lady cave just now, so I know you'll survive."

Jesse groaned at that, reminding himself to apologise to the nurse later.. Amy took the chart out of Jesse hands and clicked her pen.

"Ok, you know the drill," Amy said, pen poised over the clipboard. "Answer these questions. How's your head? Does it feel bad? Do you feel like vomiting? Can you remember anything before being knocked out?"

"Headache's getting better," Jesse answered, rubbing his temple. "No, don't feel like throwing up. And yes, I can remember what happened."

"I think you'll live," Amy declared, writing some notes on his chart. "No CT scan needed methinks but not up to me though. The attending is doing his rounds. He'll come round, give you the all clear and discharge you."

"I'll just discharge myself" Jesse said, slumping back down to his pillows and shutting his eyes. "I feel ok. Just need a few minutes."

"Well, don't leave before your fiancée comes back."

Jesse's eyes snapped open.

"My what?"

"Your fiancée," Amy intoned, signing the patient chart with a flourish. "She went home to get changed. Her clothes were a mess and she didn't look too well either."

What the fuck? Sara? It must be Sara. Who else could it be? She was now calling herself his fiancée?

"I'm not engaged!" Jesse insisted.

"Oh I know.," Amy replied.

"Tell that crazy bitch to stay away from me."

"Yeah, she's a bit of a bitch," Amy agreed, eyes still on his chart and looking non-plussed.

"Shit. I really need to get out of here," Jesse said.

Seriously, he had to. He was given a reprieve with Sara going home to get changed out of her vomit strewn clothes. He had to escape while there was still time. Jesse tried rising out of his bed and of course, at that exact moment a splitting headache bloomed right at the side of his head and Jesse fell back, moaning. Amy just watched, shaking her head. She turned towards the doorway.

"Too late," Amy fake-whispered. "Here's your fiancée now."

Ah fuck. Sara's here?

"Cover me!" Jesse whispered urgently, screwing his eyes shut. His back was towards the door and he could totally pretend to be unconscious. He would lie still, not responding and when that maniac leaves, he could snuck out.

"Ok," Amy whispered conspiratorially. She straightened up and hollered towards the door. "Hey, lady! The gig's up. This guy here said you're not his fiancée. You're not allowed in here!"

"What the hell, Amy?" Jesse heard a voice replying back. Wait, that sounded like -

"He wants you to stay away, you crazy bitch," Amy yelled back. And then her tone went back to normal. "His words, not mine."

Beca. It sounded like Beca.

This time Jesse made a huge effort to turn over and sit up. Headache be damned! It would be ok for his head split open if it was really Beca at the doorway. And when he sat up, Jesse found Amy smirking at the foot of his bed and Beca standing by the door, looking confused. Her eyes were on him.

"Hey, you're up," Beca nervously said.

"H..hey," Jesse croaked back.

Amy's smirk was still in place.

"Okaayyy. Fat Amy out," she said, popping Jesse's patient chart back into its holder and sidling out of the room. "Just don't have sex on the bed. I hate to strip the bed if I don't have to."

Jesse didn't know exactly where to look. Beca was blushing, two red spot on her cheeks but she threw Amy a killer look as the blonde swanned out of the ward. Beca stood at the doorway, making no move to come nearer. She had changed out of her bloodied top, now in a clean tshirt and skinny jeans. Her hair was bunched up in a ponytail and her face looked tired.

"Umm...just now? What Fat Amy said - " Jesse coughed uncomfortably, "I didn't mean it. You're not a crazy bitch - "

Beca sighed and finally made her way over.

"Yeah. Don't worry. That's just Amy," she shrugged. "I'll ignore the crazy bitch comment if you ignore that sex-on-the-bed thing she said." It was Beca's turn to look uncomfortable. "Also sorry about the whole fiancée thing. That was the only way Amy can let me stay with you. It's a ittle white lie, but if you don't want me to be here -"

"No. No, it's fine," Jesse hastily said. "I just thought - wait, you stayed with me?"

Beca sipped the coffee she had in her hand, avoiding Jesse's eyes.

"Yeah -" she reluctantly replied. "It should really be Benji here. But with the po-po busting the party and all that, he couldn't. And his house's trashed. Stacie, Chloe and a few of the firefighters are helping. Those whose not too hungover, anyway."

Jesse nodded slowly. His throat felt parched and he reached for the jug of water on the bed stand.

"Here. Let me help." Beca quickly sprung into action, setting her own cup of coffee down and pouring Jesse a glass of water. She handed it to him and he gulped the water down gratefully.

"Thanks," Jesse said. He hesitated before mumbling further. "For the water. And for staying. You really didn't have to."

"Least I could do," Beca answered. "You're in here because of me." She made a face and fidgeted a little on her feet. "Well, because of Luke tackling you to the ground, really. I had a long chat with him about that. He should really reign in his jealous streak. He is very, very sorry, by the way."

Jesse smiled a little wryly. His jaw hurt a little and he remembered what caused it. "Your boyfriend has a mean left hook. I didn't see it coming," he said, rubbing his aching jaw. "What happened after I blacked out?"

"You didn't black out immediately," Beca replied, sitting down on a chair next to the bed. She sighed tiredly and played nervously with her rings. "You were both hitting each other really hard."

"Wow, I didn't remember any of that."

"Dude, you were giving it back just as good. I don't know how you did it," Beca replied. "I mean, Luke was much bigger than you -"

Ok. Way to boost his ego. Fine. He'll admit it. Beca's boyfriend Luke was definitely a better specimen of manhood than he was. Tall, blonde, physically stronger. And somehow, despite his heartfelt declaration, that blonde god still got Beca. That stupid, lucky asshole.

"- and then of course, Bumper did what he did."

"What?" Jesse asked, coming out of his jealous haze.

"Oh you don't remember? You must have blacked out by then," Beca said. "Some of the guys were trying to break up the fight but Bumper? He sort of yelled out loud, threw himself on Luke's back and bit him really hard on his shoulder."

"Bumper did that?"

Beca nodded.

"Yep. It was chaos after that. Nearly turned out into a huge brawl," Beca said. "When things calmed down a little, that's when we noticed you were not moving. Ambulance was called, you were brought into ER and the rest is history."

"Did you ride in the ambulance with me?" Jesse asked.

Beca huffed out a breath, rubbing her nose consciously.

"Yeah I did," she replied, without looking at Jesse. "The driver was a madman. I had to hang on tight or get tossed across the floor."

Jesse didn't answer. He was trying to hide his smile. Somehow the thought of Beca with him in the ambulance as it raced across the city to ER made him feel all warm and fuzzy and her pretending to be his fiancée just so she could stay was definitely making his heart feel all these weird things. He was sure it was not because he just had a concussion.

"So how you feeling?" Beca asked tentatively.

"Fine," Jesse said automatically. But he then changed his tune, dramatically clutching his head . "It's just this headache. I just have to watch whether it gets worse. Amy said the doctor's going to come round to check whether I need a scan."

"That serious?" Beca exclaimed.

She looked so worried Jesse felt a little bad for laying it on a bit thick.

"Bec, it's ok -" he started.

"Dude, don't be a hero!" Beca scolded back, standing up. She parked herself on his bed, by his side and pressed him back towards the pillows. "Can you get some rest, please?"

"Bec, it's really f -"

"Shut up and get some sleep," Beca interrupted softly, pulling his blanket up and tucking him in. Jesse was about to protest but Beca's hand was now gently rubbing his forehead and ruffling his hair. He couldn't say no to this, could he?

"Go to sleep,""she whispered. "I'll be here, ok?"

* * *

She kept to her word.

Beca hung around while he drifted in and out of sleep; sometimes aware of her sitting on the chair next to the bed, cutely nodding off and jerking herself awake, sometimes overhearing Amy bustling in and making suggestive remarks to Beca that made his ears burn. The attending came round to check up on Jesse and confirmed no CT scan needed. Jesse knew that already and he felt a small nip of guilt at how relieved Beca looked at that news.

"Ok, Amy said someone needs to be with you for the next 48 hours," Beca said, checking the notes she had hurriedly type into her phone. "Plus we need to look out for any mental confusion, unusual drowsiness, any fits or seizures, anything wrong with your eyesight and any balance problems - dude, you sure you can walk?"

They were in front of his house now. He was discharged and Beca had her car with her to bring him home.

"Bec, I walked fine just now -" Jesse said.

Beca eyed him suspiciously and hovered behind him just in case.

"Ok, I..I'm going to make a quick phone call to Benji," she said, once they were inside.

He nodded, took off his shoes and headed up the stairs towards his bedroom. Jesse was so glad he was home. The last 24 hours felt really long. He needed a shower, a change of clothes and some rest. And when that was done, he could then think properlyl about Beca.

That shower felt so good.

Jesse stepped out from the scorching hot shower, towelled himself dry and stared at his face in the mirror. He looked like shit. Pale, circles under his eyes and bruises blooming nicely on his jaw where Luke decked him. Beca just now said he hit back just as hard and Jesse fervently hoped Luke's perfect face would at least looked like his.

Jesse sighed, shaking his head.

He didn't want to think too hard right now. He just need fresh clothes and maybe he could order something to eat because right now, he was famished. He walked out of the ensuite, towel wrapped snugly round his middle and with another small towel in his hand, rubbing his wet hair dry.

Beca was standing by the bedroom door.

"Oh! Er..hey," she stammered, looking more than a little embarrassed. Like she had been caught.

Ok, this was awkward.

"Umm...sorry," Beca apologised. "Didn't know you were taking a shower." Her eyes flicked down and she quickly looked away. "So - umm... I was speaking to Benji -"

"Bec -" Jesse interjected quickly before she could go on. "Could you - could you hand me my shorts? Please?"

Beca's eyes followed where Jesse was pointing at. It was a pair of blue basketball shorts which were within reach and she hastily took it and threw it at him. Her aim was so bad the shorts went straight to his face. It would have been funny if the situation didn't feel this weird.

"So I spoke to Benji -" Beca repeated, swiftly turning on her heels so her back was towards him. He didn't actually ask her to turn round but she couldn't exactly watch, right? Although hours ago, she was actually holding - umm, ok. Beca thought she heard the sound of wet towel hitting the floor and she tried not to have the image of Jesse naked behind her.

"He's still cleaning his place but he'll come round as soon as he can," she said,looking up at the ceiling. "Meanwhile I'm okay to hang around and umm...take care of you. Unless you want me to call Bum-"

"That'll be nice." she heard Jesse saying.

Except it sounded much nearer that where he was standing. Beca turned round to find Jesse looming behind with his bare chest and wet hair and those pesky blue shorts riding low on his lean hips. He was also gazing down at her with those gorgeous eyes and it was making Beca lost her train of thoughts.

"So you want me to call Bumper?" she squeaked.

"No," Jesse frowned. "I rather have you here."

See what she meant? Staring into those brown eyes made her stupid.

"Ermm.. Ok," Beca replied, pulling herself together. He shouldn't really stand that close to her in..in..in his near nakedness. It was distracting. And he smelled really good, fresh out of the shower.

"Gotta warn you, I'm not much of a nurse," Beca said. "But I have this list of instructions from Amy I kept on my phone. And I can be very strict. Like teacher strict."

She waved her phone at Jesse.

"Ok," Jesse answered, taking one step closer.

"So.. Why don't you just get in bed right now and let me take care of you?" Beca unwittingly said.

When those words came out of her mouth, she cursed inwardly. Freudian slip! It was a Freudian slip! She didn't mean it like a sexual way and Jesse was like mere inches from her, invading her personal space and his hand was reaching round -

"Dude! Stop!" Beca yelled, leaning back as far as she could. "I didn't mean it that way! I meant taking care of you like make you soup and making sure you don't die on my watch. Not like in a hand job kinda way!"

Jesse froze at her yell.

"Bec -" he said, sounding a little confused. "I was just trying to get my tshirt. It's on the chair behind you."

* * *

She couldn't be redder in her face if she wanted to.

Beca stood in the kitchen, stirring the pot of soup on the stove, thinking about what happened just now. She had fled to the kitchen as soon as she could. She felt like she should stick her face into snow. It was flaming that hard. She stood in the sunny kitchen cringing over what she shouted at Jesse and once Beca calmed down, she decided she should start on that soup. The fridge and pantry were raided but it was a typical bachelor's house. Nothing substantial available to make a meal but at least, there was enough for soup.

She heard Jesse moving upstairs as she prepared the ingredients. He didn't exactly come down as soon as he could. Obviously it was embarrassing for him as well as for her.

Beca sighed, turning her attention to her phone.

She did promised Benji she was ok for the next 24 hours to keep an eye on Jesse but with all this weirdness, maybe she should just go. She hardly slept, too anxious at the hospital from the moment she found Jesse unconscious and not responsive. Beca had to admit she was in near tears. The fight was all around her - Bumper was in Luke's back like a rabid monkey, the policemen, all Luke's colleagues were shouting ready to taser him and Jesse was lying out cold on the ground. Luckily Stacie was there and took control.

Yeah, she was in the ambulance and in ER. Good thing Jesse was quickly seen to. He was declared out of immediate danger and sent upstairs to the main wards and Beca was still there. She was so relieved Fat Amy was on duty. The Aussie complained loud and long on how she missed another great party, yet again, but then bustled Beca into Jesse's ward so she could sit next to him.

She was tired and the hospital chair wasn't exactly the most comfortable place to sleep in. When Amy found her trying to stay awake, she was ordered to go home, get a few hours of sleep and get cleaned up. Amy also promised to keep an eye on Jesse. Chloe was home, still up and had a million questions. Beca could only have a three hour nap before getting up and rushing back to the hospital.

So yeah. Not a good 24 hours.

Beca quickly sent a text to Benji and he replied a few minutes later saying he was ok to come over soon and take over. Beca typed her thanks before turning her attention back to the gurgling soup. She was switching off the stove when Jesse appeared at the door. They stared silently at each other before Jesse dropped his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck in nervousness.

"I smell food," he said.

God. Jesse - he silently berated himself as soon he spoke - can you be more stupid? Of course, there would be food. She's standing in your kitchen, isn't she? Looking really cute in your apron which was, of course, too big for her.

"Just soup," Beca replied. "Thought you might be hungry. Want some?"

Jesse nodded moving to the counter. Beca turned round and busied herself finding some crockery to serve the soup in. He tried not to stare when Beca bent down to look inside one of the cupboards. Just now upstairs was embarrassing enough. He wasn't about to attack her, although thinking about it, he could have just asked her to throw that tshirt along with his shorts. Stupid Jesse.

"Umm..bowls are at the top," Jesse spoke up. Beca straightened up and was now on tiptoes reaching for a bowl, her tshirt riding up just a little to show the pale skin on her waist., her breast straining again his apron. Again Jesse tried not to stare.

He looked down on the counter to keep his eyes off her and only looked up when a bowl of steaming chicken noodle soup was pushed under his nose. Beca was looking down at the bowl, chewing her lower lip. Her face looked slightly flushed and with one hand, she swept the flyaway strands of hair from her face.

"That smells amazing," Jesse commented, reaching for a spoon and some salt and pepper.

"Wait. I can make some toast," Beca replied. She turned to the counter, now busy with popping some bread into the toaster. She looked right at home it was crazy. The last time she was here they had mainly stayed in the games room and look at her now, cooking this yummy soup and toasting bread.

Just like he thought, the soup was delicious. Especially with warm, buttered toast. Jesse wolfed down a bowl and asked for another. He thought he saw a twinge of a smile on Beca's face when he asked for seconds. She turned too fast towards the stove for him to catch her smiling.

"Thank you," Jesse said once he polished it all off.

Beca just nodded, taking away the dirty bowl and popping it and the mug she was using i to the dishwasher. She had been sipping on a hot mug of coffee as Jesse ate. Beca was about to wipe down the counter when Jesse's hand stopped hers.

"You don't have to do that," he said. "I can clean up."

"No, you're not well. Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest?" Beca replied. "Benji will be over soon. I just get everything cleaned up and stay until Benji's here."

"Bec, why are you doing this?"

Beca blinked at the question, her eyes on Jesse's hand on top of hers. She tried moving her hand away but it was small and Jesse's was much bigger and squeezing her hand tight, not letting go.

"Dude, I told you just now," Beca scoffed. "I feel bad. You're in the hospital. Benji couldn't be there for you so it has to me."

"Does it?"

"Of course it has to be me!" she sniffed. "I mean, Luke hit you -"

"That's just it," Jesse said. "Why are you not with Luke?"

"What?"

"Luke," Jesse stressed. "Why are you here with me? If I had hit him as hard as you said and even if he suffered just half of what happened to my face, why are you not with him?"

Beca forcibly snatched her hand away, turning away. Her face and neck felt hot and she aggressively attacked the stove top with the washcloth in her hand.

"Bec-"

Jesse had stood up and came over, standing behind her. His hand reached over to take the cloth out of her hand and gently turned her round. She stared down at her feet, refusing to meet Jesse's eyes.

"Can you tell me why you are here?" he asked.

Beca snorted, keeping her eyes on her toes.

"Isn't it obvious?" she snarked back, trying to wiggle out from under him. Jesse was having none of it, boxing her in by placing both his hands on either side.

"No, it's not," he insisted. "I just hit my head. Please explain it to me."

Beca rolled her eyes.

"I was worried," she reluctantly confessed.

"And?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt," she continued, feeling her throat seized up.

"Because?"

"Because you're a nice guy!"she yelled a little too loud. "And I like..I like you and I really care about you. So of course, it had to be me at the hospital!"

Jesse had jumped a little at her yell but the ghost of a smile began to spread across his face at the second half of her confession.

"Well, you know I like you too," he confessed. "A lot. I really like you a lot, Beca."

Beca flushed a little and then straightened up.

"Ok, now that we've established that -" she said, sounding business-like. "Can you, please, let me go?"

"No." came the answer.

"No?" Beca frowned up, finally looking up at him. Jesse had that half smile on his face - the one that always make her a little weak-kneed. "What do you mean 'no'?"

"I still need to know about Luke," he said simply.

"What?" Beca replied. "Why?"

"Because I want to know whether it's ok to kiss you."

This time it was her mouth which curved into a smile. Beca gazed back into Jesse's brown eyes. Her arms went up, her hands linking at the back of his neck. And as she pulled his face closer, she whispered "Yeah, it's ok" before planting her mouth on Jesse's soft one.

* * *

Benji reached for his key to Jesse's house and as softly as he could, jiggled the lock opened. Jesse might be sleeping and he didn't want to wake him up. Benji still had some tidying up to do but Beca's text sounded urgent just now.

He didn't blamed her.

The whole of last night must be draining for her and from what he could pieced from Chloe' Beca didn't return home till early in the morning and even then, she had gone back to the hospital as soon as she could. Tidying his house could wait. Beca could probably use a little rest.

He entered the house, stepping into the hallway.

House seemed quiet.

Jesse must be sleeping then and Benji supposed Beca must be somewhere in the living room, waiting for him.

"Beca," he called out.

It came out like a croak. That pot really screwed his throat up. He should have listened to his momma and not get involved with drugs. And look, he must still be hallucinating or tripping - is that the word they used? - because Benji thought he heard a giggle coming from the kitchen.

"Bec?" Benji croaked out again.

Ok, he was not tripping. That sounded like something falling and breaking into pieces. Maybe a mug? Or a plate? It was coming from the kitchen. Benji stealthily tiptoed over. Was there was an intruder? Maybe someone had broken in, his best friend was unconscious upstairs and Beca was tied up somewhere -

The kitchen door was slightlly ajar and Benji carefully pushed it open.

"Jesus H. Christ!" Benji yelled.

"Benji!" "Oh my god, Benji!"

Benji had quickly jumped back, slamming the kitchen door shut. Oh, Beca was tied up, alright. On top of the kitchen counter without her top. With Jesse's apron tied, round her waist and his supposedly unconscious friend, also topless, was enjoying her rather spectacular rack. Benji really didn't need to see all that.

"Umm..." Benji cleared his throat, using his firefighter skills to think quickly on his feet. "Hey Jess! Looks like you're ok," he yelled loudly at the closed door.

"Yeah," came the muffled reply. "I'm fine."

Benji thought he could hear Beca stifling her giggles.

"Ok. Good to know," Benji shouted back. "I..I come back in about...umm two hours? Two hours ok?"

"Yep. That's fine," he heard Jesse yelling back. He was about to run when Jesse yelled again. "Benj! Can you make that three? No. Four. Come back in four."

"Four hours ? Wow," Benji's face was beetroot red. "Ok, bud! Four it is!"

He was about to step away but came back and urgently knocked on the kitchen door.

"Good job, buddy!" Benji yelled.

And when he heard the laughs breaking out on the other side of the door, Benji quickly made his escape.

\- Fini -

* * *

 **AN** : _There you are, folks. It's inevitable. I really enjoyed writing this one. It was fun and relatively angst-free. I know some of you asked for a sequel but I can't think of any at the moment. I might post one-offs. A smutty scene or two and definitely meeting the parents, maybe a proposal and wedding. Can you imagine the chaos of Beca meeting Jesse's mum? And them getting married? But I will be mainly moving to my other stories now. Thank you very much for al your follows,myour reads and reviews. They are the ones that kept me going and I'm truly humbled. Thank you._


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